Wells Fargo & Co.'s headquarters in San Francisco. Photo: Noah Berger/Bloomberg News

Wells Fargo & Co. confirmed Thursday it has named banking veteran Douglas Edwards as acting general counsel of its embattled legal department while it continues to search for a permanent legal chief who will be acceptable to federal regulators.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has overseen a two-year purge of Wells Fargo executives and directors in an effort to change the bank's values and compliance culture. Numerous scandals have cost the bank more than $4 billion in penalties.

At the center of all the turmoil has been its office of general counsel and its legal department.

In the past three years, the bank has gone through two prominent general counsel, as well as Edwards, who is serving his second stint in the chair.

In 2017 during the federal investigations of fake bank accounts and other scandals, former longtime general counsel James Strother retired. This past January Strother was one of five bank executives civilly charged by the Comptroller's Office for failing to act on the phony bank accounts. Three other former executives reached settlement deals.

Douglas Edwards, acting general counsel Wells Fargo. Courtesy photo

The Comptroller report was highly critical of Strother and his legal team. Strother, who has vowed to fight the charges, was assessed a $5 million civil penalty.

After Strother retired and the CEO was replaced, the bank in mid-2017 hired Allen Parker, former presiding partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, as general counsel. After another CEO was ousted in 2019, the board named Parker interim chief executive.

At that time Edwards, who was deputy general counsel, was elevated to interim general counsel.

When Parker was passed over for the permanent CEO job last fall, he returned to the legal department where the bank hoped he would remain as general counsel. But he soon announced he would leave the bank at the end of this month.

A Wells Fargo spokesman on Thursday said Parker actually stepped away from day-to-day legal responsibilities Feb. 7 and that Edwards has been serving as acting general counsel and a member of the bank's operating committee.

On Feb. 21 the bank announced its $3 billion settlement and deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Parker had overseen the negotiations on the deal.

"Allen is still a member of the legal department and will be available to assist the company through March," the spokesman added.

The bank said neither Parker, who is based at the bank's San Francisco headquarters, nor Edwards, who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, would do interviews.

Edward's bio shows he has served Wells Fargo and its predecessor banks nearly 25 years. He came to Wells Fargo as part of the Wachovia Corp. merger in 2008, serving first as assistant general counsel over litigation for five years and then as deputy general counsel.

At Wachovia from 2001 to 2008, he served as deputy general counsel and led the litigation team. Prior to that, he was at Wachovia's predecessor, First Union Corp., starting in 1995 where he served in various legal roles. He is a graduate of the University at Buffalo School of Law.

The control of Wells Fargo's senior management team remains with the Office of the Comptroller, under terms of its 2018 consent order with the bank that included a $1 billion fine. In the order the Comptroller reserved the authority to take action "that imposes business restrictions and/or requires the bank to make changes to its senior executive officers or any and/or all members of the board."