New Wells Fargo chief to employees: 'We're sorry'

Newly-appointed Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan told employees Tuesday that he is "sorry for the pain" that the bank's employees have suffered as a result of the company's sales practices scandal.

Sloan's company-wide speech, given Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the latest effort by Wells Far-go's executives to atone for the fact that the bank's employees, pushed to the limit by impossible sales goals, opened as many as 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customers' authorization.

In the speech, Sloan acknowledged that the bank did not respond to the problems in its branches soon enough and that upper management dodged responsibility for the bad behavior and wrongly placed blame on branch employees.