Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf knows he has a reputation for sternness, but he said that when the bank was finally freed of a $1.95 trillion asset cap by regulators on Tuesday, he became emotional. “Everyone thinks that I’m this tough, tough person … but it’s been so long in the making, it’s impacted so many people so negatively,” Scharf said. “All of a sudden, it’s like it’s all been worth it and everyone’s feeling it.” Scharf took the helm at Wells Fargo in 2019, vowing to repair its deeply entrenched problems from a fake-accounts scandal that erupted in 2016. The bank faced a public outcry, was blasted by lawmakers and slapped with billions of dollars in fines. The Federal Reserve’s decision to lift one of Wells Fargo’s last major punishments this week has largely closed that chapter in its history. It also cements Scharf’s legacy after a grueling turnaround in which he overhauled management, slashed headcount and shed businesses. He is turning his focus to growth after serving almost six years as Wells Fargo’s fixer-in-chief. He plans to expand further in credit cards and investment banking, while also investing in wealth and commercial banking. It will not expand in mortgages, he said. The bank exited many of those operations after they were beset by scandal. As Wells Fargo aims to increase earnings, it plans to raise its dividend to keep payouts consistent for investors, Scharf said. Share buybacks will continue, but their pace will probably slow as the bank invests in growth, he said. Wells Fargo shares were up 0.5% on Wednesday afternoon, having climbed more than 8% so far this year as investors became more optimistic about the bank shedding its regulatory baggage.”I would expect that across all the remaining businesses that we have, with the slight exception of our mortgage business, all have opportunities to grow and produce higher returns. So it’s true of the wealth business through commercial still true of CIB (corporate and investment banking), because even though we’re seeing results and significant upside there, it’s true in our business, and super importantly, it’s true in our consumer and small business banking business, where they were most impacted by the sales practice scandal. We’re just introducing disciplines back to be able to serve customers more broadly and grow in ways that we haven’t been able to.” In some ways, it’s a totally different company. The culture is different here, it’s not a “me” culture. People want to be treated fairly, they want to be paid fairly, but they come here because they want to work together. That is incredibly important. Carried to an extreme, it hurt us because we didn’t make difficult decisions about people, we didn’t confront things. But I do think a culture like that, in a balanced way, is incredible to have. It takes a long time to build.