MW Wells Fargo gets another federal penalty lifted, but still has 3 big ones to go

By Steve Gelsi

Bank confirms lifting of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent order from 2018

Wells Fargo & Co. has reduced the number of federal enforcement actions against it on one front, but it still faces three outstanding issues, including its $1.95 trillion asset cap.

The San Francisco bank said Monday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) 2018 consent order - stemming from its compliance risk management program - has terminated. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency lifted its consent order for the same issue in February.

MarketWatch reached out for comment on the matter from the CFPB.

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charles Scharf said the bank "is a different and stronger company today" after he took the helm in 2019 to correct its compliance problems.

Monday's compliance move by Wells Fargo marks its sixth consent order closing since the start of 2025 and the 12th since 2019.

Wells Fargo's stock $(WFC)$ dipped 0.1% in morning trading, while the broader bank sector KBE was seeing a slight gain.

The three major disciplinary actions that remain against Wells Fargo include two from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - one last year for violating regulations against money laundering; and a 2015 action by the OCC for violation of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to protect consumer information.

For the third, Wells Fargo still faces a $1.95 trillion asset cap imposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve Board in 2018.

The bank has been working through deeper scrutiny from regulators in the wake of a phony-accounts scandal that arose nearly a decade ago.

In February, the Federal Reserve lifted consent orders focused on deficient practices in residential mortgage-loan servicing and foreclosure processing, and another that took aim at deficient mortgage-lending practices at a former subsidiary.

Wells Fargo's stock has fallen 0.8% so far in 2025, while shares of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. $(GS)$ are down 4%, $Bank of America Corp(BAC-N)$. $(BAC.SI)$ are down 9.2%, Morgan Stanley $(MS)$ are down 7.2% and Citigroup Inc. (C) are down 2.6%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s stock $(JPM)$ has risen 1.5% - the only banking giant to outperform Wells Fargo this year.

Wells Fargo has outperformed other big-bank stocks partly on the expectation that it will work through all its regulatory issues in the coming months.

-Steve Gelsi

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2025 11:27 ET (15:27 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.