Wells Fargo's 2016 'consent order' terminated by US regulator OCC
By Niket Nishant and Nupur Anand
(Reuters) -Wells Fargo said the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has terminated a 2016 consent order over the bank's sales practices misconduct, after years of work to repair the damage from a scandal that put it in regulators' crosshairs.
The move marks the sixth consent order that regulators have terminated for the bank since 2019, CEO Charlie Scharf said. Shares of Wells Fargo climbed over 6%, hitting their highest in over two weeks.
«I have repeatedly said that implementing a risk and control framework appropriate for a bank of our size and complexity is our top priority, and closing consent orders is an important sign of our progress,» Scharf said in a statement.
Wells Fargo's compliance issues came under the spotlight after a scandal over its sales practices erupted in 2016, following which regulators mandated additional oversight of its practices.
A consent order is a formal, public enforcement action between a regulator and a bank, which often comes with a fine and orders to address an issue in a timely fashion.
The bank still has eight open consent orders, and is operating under a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve in 2018 that prevents it from growing until regulators deem that it has fixed its problems.
«The lifting of this OCC consent order, however, paves the way for the Federal Reserve to lift its consent order, in our opinion,» RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy wrote in a note.
The OCC's 2016 consent order sought changes in the way Wells Fargo offered and sold products and services to consumers, and required the lender to take additional actions to protect its customers and employees.
«I think it (2016 order termination) will
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