Wells Fargo got another fine, but also says the CFPB order for 2016 sales practices has ended

Wells Fargo was fined $ 250 million by a bank regulator after it failed to properly execute a mortgage loss reduction program.

The Currency Comptroller’s Office said Thursday that the bank participated in “unsafe or insecure practices” related to its loan modification program and violated the terms of a 2018 consent order that was critical of the their risk management systems.

“Wells Fargo has not met the requirements of the 2018 OCC action against the bank. This is unacceptable,” the acting currency prosecutor, Michael J. Hsu, said in a statement. “In addition to the $ 250 million civil penalty we are valuing against Wells Fargo, today’s action puts limits on the bank’s future activities until existing problems in the mortgage service are properly addressed.”

In a statement, Wells Fargo acknowledged the OCC’s regulatory action and said an independent issue had expired, a 2016 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent order The bank’s shares rose 1 , 6% in the news.

Wells Fargo has paid more than $ 4 billion in penalties since the 2016 fake accounts scandal was uncovered. But the satisfaction of the CFPB’s consent order, one of the first actions it faced, could prove which is advancing. The bank had been operating under a dozen consent orders; one of them, from the Federal Reserve, limits the company’s ability to grow its balance sheet.

“Building adequate risk and control infrastructure has been and continues to be Wells Fargo’s top priority,” Charlie Scharf, CEO of Wells Fargo, said in the statement. “The actions of the OCC today point to work that we must continue to do to address significant and long-standing shortcomings.”

The new OCC enforcement action requires the bank to take “comprehensive and comprehensive corrective” measures to improve the mortgage program and prevents it from using third-party mortgage administrators.

Scharf said the expiration of the CFPB’s consent order tied to its business practices is “representative of the progress we are making” in resolving the bank’s numerous regulatory issues.

“We have done substantial work designed to ensure that the fundamental conduct of the consent order, which was reprehensible and totally inconsistent with the values ​​on which this company was built, will not be repeated,” Scharf said.