(Reuters) – Wells Fargo (NYSE:) & Co is pausing a hiring policy that requires recruiters to interview a diverse pool of candidates, after the New York Times reported such interviews were often fake and conducted even though the job had already been promised to someone else.

According to a memo obtained by Reuters, Charles Scharf, the Chief Executive Officer of the bank, stated that it also intends to review its various slate guidelines.

Scharf spoke about Wells Fargo’s employees, saying that “Since The New York Times published last month a story about diverse job candidates at Wells Fargo”,

He said, “In these sessions you’ve described deeply personal the career challenges you’ve faced due to who you are.”

The New York Times last month reported that a former employee of the bank’s wealth-management business complained about being forced to interview candidates for jobs that had been promised to him by others in order to fulfill the varied slate requirement.

A talent acquisition strategy that uses a variety of candidates to hire is called Diverse Slate Hiring.

Scharf stated that the bank would continue to seek diversity in its hiring efforts even in this pause and, upon completion of the review will make any necessary adjustments to its diverse slate programs and relaunch them in July.

At a Zoom meeting, Scharf stated that the bank is having difficulty reaching its diversity goals in 2020 because of a lack of qualified minorities talent.