Wells Fargo gets 2015 regulatory order lifted

Wells Fargo & Co. got another regulatory order lifted, the latest sign of progress for Chief Executive Charlie Scharf’s quest to turn around the scandal-plagued bank. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency terminated a 2015 order over add-on products that Wells Fargo improperly sold to customers, according to a statement Thursday. 

“Wells Fargo’s top priority is building a risk and control infrastructure appropriate for its size and complexity,” the San Francisco-based bank, which stopped selling the products in 2017, said in a separate statement. “The termination of the 2015 consent order is a step in this work, as the company continues to focus on resolving legacy regulatory issues.”

The order was put in place before the firm’s scandals erupted in 2016 with the revelation that employees opened millions of fake accounts to meet sales goals. Wells Fargo’s regulatory problems multiplied in subsequent years and nine public orders still remain in place, including a costly asset cap from the Federal Reserve. 

This is the second OCC action that has been terminated under Scharf, and a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau order expired last year. Still, the firm was handed a fresh sanction from the OCC in September and Scharf has repeatedly said that, while he believes the bank is making progress, there will continue to be “setbacks.”