WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger has voiced his support for former Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan, saying the latter's abrupt resignation in March amid the bank's misdeeds was a decision made under pressure.
In his first interview after Saturday's Berkshire annual shareholders meeting, Munger told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer that Sloan should still be the CEO of Wells Fargo. The Yahoo Finance interview will be aired on Thursday, but a clip was posted on its website Sunday.
"He made this decision (to resign), but he was being pushed hard. He did it for the benefit of the company," the 95-year-old said.
Wells Fargo has in recent years been engulfed in a slew of regulatory probes, which revealed that the San Francisco-headquartered bank, through a system aiming to incentivize its employees to meet sales quotas, mistreated customers by opening 3.5 million unauthorized bank and credit card accounts without clients' knowledge.
It also charged customers with excessive mortgage fees and asked them to enroll in force-placed insurance, the investigations found.
The bank announced on March 28 that Sloan decided to resign immediately and retire from the company on June 30.
Wells Fargo's fake account scandal also saw the departure in 2016 of John Stumpf, Sloan's predecessor.
Munger said there has been "too much partisan hatred" against Wells Fargo, adding that Sloan's resignation is understandable.
"He was there for a long time, the company had defrauded its own customers, nobody was seemingly being punished for -- in some people's minds," he said.
Two CEOs' stepping down, Munger said, is "a lot of punishment" for Wells Fargo. "I don't think these people are failing."
"Tim Sloan was not responsible for the crazy incentive system that created the problem," Munger said.
Berkshire owns some 9 percent of Wells Fargo's shares.
