May 29 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo ( WFC ) on Thursday moved a step closer to resolving

longstanding regulatory issues that have kept it under a $1.95 trillion asset cap, after a top

U.S. regulator lifted a 2015 enforcement action against the bank.

The move made by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency marks the thirteenth

consent order closed by Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) regulators since 2019 and the seventh since the beginning

of the year, the Wall Street giant said.

The company now operates under just one remaining consent order or enforcement action

involving a fine or specific directive to address an issue.

The termination marks another win for CEO Charles Scharf, who has spearheaded a massive

clean up effort since taking charge. Shares of Wells Fargo ( WFC ) were last up nearly 1% in

late-afternoon trading.

"This shows that the bank and the new management have made tremendous progress, these

consent orders getting terminated show that the issues have been resolved to regulators'

satisfaction," said Stephen Biggar, banking analyst at Argus Research.

"Now the only last hurdle is to get the asset cap removed and the regulators just need to

ensure that there are no chances of a relapse."

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said that the OCC's 2015 order had been tied to its previously held financial

subsidiaries.

PROLONGED REGULATORY TROUBLES

Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) regulatory issues came under the spotlight after a fake accounts scandal

erupted in 2016, leading to intense scrutiny and billions of dollars in fines.

Since 2018, the bank has also operated under a U.S. Federal Reserve-imposed asset cap, one

of the most severe penalties available to regulators, which bars it from growing its balance

sheet beyond $1.95 trillion until its problems are fixed.

Regulators imposed additional oversight of Wells Fargo ( WFC ) following the scandal. The bank has

been fined billions of dollars and faced public backlash after what the Federal Reserve

described as "pervasive and persistent misconduct" that harmed consumers.

The bank has been managing its wholesale deposits and markets businesses carefully to

comply with the cap, and those are areas that the company would expect to grow when the

restrictions are lifted, Scharf told analysts in October.

Last year, Reuters, citing sources, reported the bank was in the last stages of a process to

pass regulatory tests to lift the asset cap in 2025, after fixing the problems from its

fake-accounts scandal.