Wells Fargo will make Kleber Santos the sole chief executive of Consumer Banking and Lending while shifting co-CEO Saul Van Beurden to focus exclusively on artificial intelligence across the company. The bank announced the leadership change on October 22. Bloomberg reported the move, and Wells Fargo’s announcement sets out the two executives’ new remits.
Santos and Van Beurden had served as co-CEOs of Consumer Banking and Lending since the unit was formed the previous year. Santos will now take full responsibility for the business, which includes consumer deposits, credit cards, business banking and auto lending. Van Beurden, who established and led Wells Fargo’s AI efforts alongside his consumer-banking role, will concentrate on enterprise-scale AI adoption and company-wide transformation. The announcement does not specify an effective date for the change.
Both executives will continue to report to chairman and CEO Charlie Scharf and remain members of the bank’s Operating Committee. Scharf said the bank has opportunities to grow its consumer businesses and use AI to change how it operates and serves customers; he described the leaders as having built momentum in both areas. The new division of work therefore places a single executive over the consumer unit while giving Van Beurden a dedicated company-wide technology mandate.
That distinction matters because the bank’s announcement is about scope, not an exit: Van Beurden remains on the senior operating team, and Santos remains accountable for the full consumer and lending operation. The bank did not disclose a separate successor to Van Beurden within the consumer business or name a new AI leadership layer below him. Those details were not part of the announcement.
The move also fits a wider pattern of companies assigning enterprise technology mandates to senior executives. Encafeinados previously covered Meta’s appointment of CJ Desai to lead its enterprise platform. Wells Fargo’s change is more specific: one leader steps away from a shared business presidency so he can focus on AI, while the other becomes the sole head of the consumer operation.
The bank also says Van Beurden will work closely with Bridget Engle, Wells Fargo’s head of Technology, and business leaders as he develops enterprise-scale adoption. His remit includes strengthening work with leading AI companies. The release provides no separate start date, so the clearest confirmed point is the intended division of responsibility: Santos will lead the consumer and lending operation, while Van Beurden concentrates on AI for the company.
