• Federal Reserve ends major enforcement action against Wells Fargo
• Order introduced in 2018 after 2016 fake accounts scandal
• Bank required to strengthen governance and risk management systems
• Two independent third party reviews conducted to verify reforms
• Fed says Wells Fargo met all conditions after nearly decade long remediation
• Bank now has no outstanding enforcement actions from the Federal Reserve
• Wells Fargo still faces an OCC enforcement action related to AML controls
• Removal of asset cap and consent orders marks progress in regulatory recovery

The Federal Reserve has formally ended a key enforcement action against Wells Fargo, concluding a nearly decade long regulatory effort to address governance and risk management failures tied to the bank’s 2016 fake accounts scandal.

The central bank announced Thursday that Wells Fargo had satisfied all conditions required under a 2018 order that demanded sweeping reforms to the bank’s governance structure and internal risk management programs.

The order was introduced at the height of the bank’s regulatory crisis following revelations that employees had opened millions of unauthorized customer accounts in order to meet aggressive sales targets.

Under the enforcement action, Wells Fargo was required to demonstrate that it had strengthened internal oversight and risk controls compared with the framework that existed during the scandal.

The bank also had to undergo two independent third party reviews to confirm the effectiveness of its remediation efforts.

According to the Federal Reserve, those requirements have now been fulfilled.

The central bank said Wells Fargo has “met all required conditions” of the order following remediation work that extended across nearly ten years.

The conclusion of the enforcement action represents a major milestone for the San Francisco based bank, which has spent years attempting to restore confidence among regulators, customers, and investors after one of the most damaging scandals in modern U.S. banking.

Wells Fargo acknowledged the development in a brief press release issued Thursday but did not provide additional commentary on the decision.

The termination of the order also marks the first time in roughly fifteen years that the bank has no active enforcement actions outstanding with the Federal Reserve.

However, Wells Fargo’s regulatory challenges are not fully resolved.

The bank continues to face scrutiny from other federal regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In September 2024 the OCC announced an enforcement action against the bank after identifying deficiencies in anti money laundering controls and financial crime risk management.

Those issues involved weaknesses in areas such as suspicious activity reporting, customer due diligence procedures, customer identification programs, and beneficial ownership verification.

The OCC’s findings indicate that while Wells Fargo has made substantial progress on governance reforms related to the fake accounts scandal, regulators remain focused on strengthening the bank’s broader compliance framework.

Over the past several years Wells Fargo has been working through an extensive series of regulatory consent orders tied to misconduct and control failures uncovered during the previous decade.

At one point the bank faced more than a dozen enforcement actions across multiple agencies. The orders required large scale investments in compliance infrastructure, governance reform, and internal risk management capabilities.

In 2023 and 2024 the bank made significant progress in resolving those issues. It eliminated several major consent orders and other regulatory restrictions that had constrained operations.

Among the most notable developments was the removal of the Federal Reserve’s $1.95 trillion asset cap, a unique regulatory sanction imposed in 2018 that limited Wells Fargo’s ability to grow its balance sheet until governance reforms were completed.

The lifting of that cap was widely viewed as a turning point in the bank’s regulatory recovery.

Regulatory analysts say the Federal Reserve’s decision to terminate the governance enforcement order reinforces the view that Wells Fargo has made measurable progress in strengthening its risk management framework.

Nevertheless, regulators are likely to continue monitoring the bank closely, particularly in areas related to financial crime controls and operational risk management.

For Wells Fargo, the end of the Federal Reserve enforcement order represents another step in a long process of rebuilding institutional credibility.

The bank’s leadership has repeatedly emphasized that restoring trust with regulators and customers remains a central priority.

With the conclusion of the order, Wells Fargo now enters a new phase of oversight in which regulators will expect the reforms implemented over the past decade to remain embedded across its operations.