July 31 (Reuters) - U.S. lender Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said

on Thursday its board of directors planned to appoint the

lender's CEO Charlie Scharf as its chairman and to award him a

one-time special equity grant of $30 million in restricted share

rights and stock options.

The bank said in a statement the actions reflected the

board's desire to retain Scharf as the CEO and to recognize his

leadership in transforming Wells Fargo ( WFC ).

When Scharf becomes the chairman, the board will appoint a

lead independent director to maintain oversight, the bank said,

without specifying when the change would take place.

"The special equity award is designed to acknowledge

Charlie's role in leading Wells Fargo ( WFC ) through an unprecedented

transformation, creating shareholder value and positioning the

company for the future," said Steven Black, the current chairman

of Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) board.

The award will also help in maintaining Scharf's

compensation relative to top executives at peer financial

institutions, the bank said in a separate regulatory filing.

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) was released last month from a punitive,

seven-year-long $1.95 trillion cap on its assets.

Scharf, 60, took the helm at Wells Fargo ( WFC ) in 2019, vowing to

repair its deeply entrenched problems from a fake-accounts

scandal that erupted in 2016. The bank faced a public outcry and

faced billions of dollars in fines.

The bank decided to split the chairman and the CEO roles in

2016 after the scandal erupted.

JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and Bank of

America ( BAC ) are other major U.S. banks where the CEO is also

the chairman of the board.

Influential proxy advisers have made calls in the past to

separate the two positions to bolster corporate governance. The

proposal was rejected by shareholders of Goldman Sachs ( GS ) and Bank

of America ( BAC ) last year.