Keith Kobata is the new face of Wells Fargo & Co. in Orange County, in charge of more than 1,000 employees at the bank’s 79 branches.
“When your readers walk into the branches, that’s the area I oversee,” the 46 year old said.
He ideally wants customers to have “an exceptional customer experience.”
That experience has taken on new meaning, given Wells Fargo’s problems in recent years.
In 2016, the bank reached a $190 million settlement to resolve allegations it engaged in years of improper sales practices that resulted in the opening of 3.5 million accounts without customers’ knowledge. The bank now faces class-action lawsuits accusing it of overcharging auto-loan and mortgage customers.
The lender decided in May to reorganize its retail banking unit, cutting about 70 senior executive jobs. One of those executives was Wells Fargo’s previous boss in OC, Ben Alvarado, who departed that month. Alvarado was an executive vice president responsible for 230 banking locations in OC, San Diego and parts of the Inland Empire, with $38 billion in deposits and 3,700 employees.
Due to the reorganization, Kobata has fewer responsibilities than Alvarado did. The region bank president oversees the community banking unit, which is only about a third of the Wells Fargo employees in the county. Wells Fargo’s other employees work in units that include mortgages, business banking and wealth management.
Largest in OC
Just a few days before an interview for this article, the Federal Reserve imposed new restrictions on Wells Fargo, limiting it to $1.95 trillion in assets until it improves governance and controls.
Kobata pointed out that the Fed action wasn’t the result of new regulatory issues. He said the bank has worked hard to overcome its problems, such as eliminating product sales goals in branches, consolidating departments, and establishing risk-management groups. He added that customer satisfaction scores are similar to those in place prior to the scandal and that clients don’t complain to him.
“When I talk to customers in branches, the overwhelming majority of comments compliment their bankers,” he said.
OC residents certainly didn’t flee the bank, boosting their deposits by almost $500 million to $22.9 billion as of June 30, up 2.2% from the prior year, according to the Business Journal’s annual list of commercial banks.
Wells Fargo continued its reign as the county’s largest commercial bank by deposits (see list article, page 1.)
Promote From Within
Kobata grew up in San Jose, a fan of local sports teams like the 49ers and the Giants. While attending San Jose State University, he worked part time as a Wells Fargo customer service representative to help customers open accounts. Once he graduated with a degree in human resources management, he joined the bank, where he’s been for 23 years.
He’s worked his way up from banker to assistant branch manager to branch manager to district manager. Before he took his current job, he managed Wells Fargo’s north OC and Long Beach regions.
“That’s one of the great things about Wells Fargo—we like to promote from within,” he said.
Kobata, who moved to OC about 11 years ago, plans to stay for a while, noting that his ninth-floor office in an Irvine building near John Wayne Airport has recently been improved. Since he lives in Irvine, he enjoys avoiding the freeway for his drive home.
He’s on the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce board and is in the process of joining a couple of other boards, which he declined to reveal. He said he wants to join organizations that focus on areas he’s passionate about, such as small businesses and homelessness.
Community-Bank Feeling
Kobata said his bosses grade him based on surveys on customer service, employee experiences and strong risk management.
“If we do all three things, then naturally we’ll grow our business.”
Kobata, who oversees eight district managers, said employment will likely be flat this year. It will be challenging to hire top talent due to or Wells’ problems and full employment in the larger OC economy. So the bank has raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour and issues restrictive stock shares to employees.
Though there are industry reports of banks’ branches declining nationally, Kobata said he doesn’t anticipate a big change in OC “as long as customers want to go into branches.”
Nowadays, Wells Fargo tries to help customers “take control of their finances” by educating them on technology, such as a mobile application that permits them to see credit scores, turn off debit cards and set account alerts, he said.
The bank is moving from a highly structured environment to one that has “genuine conversations with our customers,” he said.
“Even though customers think of Wells Fargo as a big bank, we are creating a feeling of a community bank.”
