Wells Fargo received another fine, but also says the 2016 CFPB sales practices order has been completed

Wells Fargo has been fined $ 250 million by a banking regulator after failing to properly execute a mortgage loss mitigation program.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said on Thursday the bank had engaged in “unsafe or unhealthy practices” related to its loan modification program and violated the terms of a 2018 consent order that criticized its systems risk management.

“Wells Fargo did not meet the requirements of the 2018 OCC action against the bank. This is unacceptable,” Acting Currency Comptroller Michael J. Hsu said in a statement. “In addition to the $ 250 million civil fine we are assessing against Wells Fargo, today’s action places limits on the bank’s future activities until existing problems in the mortgage service are resolved. adequately resolved. “

In a statement, Wells Fargo acknowledged the OCC’s regulatory action and said a separate matter, a 2016 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent order, had expired. The bank’s shares climbed 1.6% on the news.

Wells Fargo has paid more than $ 4 billion in penalties since its 2016 fake accounts scandal was discovered. But fulfilling the CFPB’s consent order, one of the first actions it faced, could show progress is being made. The bank operated under a dozen consent orders; one of them, the Federal Reserve, limits the company’s ability to grow its balance sheet.

“Building an appropriate risk and control infrastructure has been and remains Wells Fargo’s top priority,” Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said in the statement. “OCC’s actions today indicate the work we must continue to do to address important and long-standing gaps.”

The new OCC enforcement measure requires the bank to take “broad and comprehensive” corrective measures to improve the mortgage program and prohibits it from using third-party mortgage services.

Scharf said the expiration of the CFPB consent order related to its sales practices is “indicative of the progress we are making” in addressing the bank’s many regulatory issues.

“We have done substantial work designed to ensure that the conduct at the heart of the consent order – which was reprehensible and utterly inconsistent with the values ​​this business was built upon – will not happen again,” Scharf said. .