The OCC flagged the bank’s financial-crimes risk-management practices and anti-money-laundering internal controls.
Wells Fargo & Co.’s stock was falling on Thursday afternoon after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency disclosed a fresh enforcement action against the bank.
The OCC released a 26-page agreement of procedural changes with Wells Fargo after it identified “deficiencies related to the bank’s financial-crimes risk-management practices and anti-money-laundering internal controls.”
The shortfalls included suspicious activity and currency-transaction reporting, due diligence of customers, and the bank’s customer-identification and beneficial-ownership programs.
In a statement on the matter, Wells Fargo said, “We have been working to address a substantial portion of what’s required in the formal agreement, and we are committed to completing the work with the same sense of urgency as our other regulatory commitments.”
The agreement with the OCC said Wells Fargo had started to take corrective action and “has committed to taking all necessary and appropriate steps to remedy the deficiencies … and to enhance its internal controls and financial-crimes risk-management practices.”
The bank’s shares WFC-4.02% moved sharply lower in the wake of the news and were down 3.1% in late-afternoon trading.
Wells Fargo has been operating under an asset cap imposed by the Federal Reserve in 2018 due to “widespread consumer abuses and compliance breakdowns” at the bank.
Wells Fargo Chief Executive Charles Scharf took the job in 2019 to overhaul the bank’s compliance efforts.
In February, Wells Fargo said it satisfied requirements by federal regulators to overhaul aspects of its operations related to a scandal around the creation of fake bank accounts, but the company still faces other pending actions.
Wells Fargo has paid billions in fines and settlements related to the scandal, which surfaced in 2016.