(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday that Wells Fargo ( WFC ) will no longer have to operate under a $1.95 trillion asset cap the regulator imposed on the bank in 2018 following its long-running sales practices scandal.

The Fed said in a statement that the bank had made "substantial progress" in addressing its deficiencies, including improving governance and risk management programs, clearing the way for the central bank to remove the unprecedented growth restriction.

Here is an overview of the bank's years-long effort to address its regulatory woes:

Date Development

September The bank agreed to pay $185 million in penalties

2016 and $5 million to customers that regulators said

were pushed into fee-generating accounts they never

requested

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received

$100 million of the total penalties - the largest

fine ever levied by the federal agency at the time.

Los Angeles officials and the Office of the

Comptroller of the Currency were also party to the

settlement.

CEO John Stumpf appeared before the Senate Banking

Committee for his oversight. Later that month, the

bank said it would eliminate sales goals for its

retail banking business sooner than planned

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said Stumpf would forfeit equity awards

worth about $41 million and not get a salary while

the company's board investigates its sales

practices

October Veteran chairman and CEO Stumpf left. Tim Sloan

2016 took over the top job

February The lender said it fired four mid-level executives

2017 and stripped them of bonuses and stock awards as a

result of an investigation into improper sales

practices in its retail bank

March Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said eight senior executives, including

2017 CEO Sloan and finance chief John Shrewsberry, would

not receive cash bonuses for 2016

July 2017 Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the central

bank was prepared to act against the directors of

Wells Fargo ( WFC ) if an investigation deemed it

appropriate

August Wells Fargo ( WFC ) hiked the tally of accounts that were

2017 potentially opened without customers' knowledge by

over a million after an expanded review of improper

sales practices

February The Fed imposed an asset cap of $1.95 trillion on

2018 the bank "until it sufficiently improves its

governance and controls"

May 2019 CEO Tim Sloan resigned, becoming the second CEO to

leave the bank in the fallout of the sales

practices scandal

September After a difficult, months-long search for a new

2019 CEO, the bank named Charles Scharf as its next

leader

The OCC announced civil charges against five former

senior bank executives and settlements of charges

January with three other senior bank officials, including

2020 former CEO John Stumpf

He agreed to pay a $17.5 million penalty and a

prohibition from the banking industry, while Carrie

Tolstedt, the former community banking head, faced

a fine of $25 million and an industry ban

February The lender agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve

2020 criminal and civil probes into fraudulent sales

practices and admitted to pressuring employees in a

fake-accounts scandal

April The Fed said it would "temporarily and narrowly"

2020 modify the growth restriction, allowing the bank to

offer more loans under government assistance

programs for small businesses hurt in the pandemic

July 2020 Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said Mike Santomassimo would replace

John Shrewsberry as chief financial officer

February Fed officials privately signaled that they had

2021 accepted the bank's proposal for overhauling risk

management and governance, Bloomberg News reported

September Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was

2021 closely monitoring efforts to fix Wells Fargo's ( WFC )

"widespread and pervasive" problems, and would take

appropriate actions if the bank failed to do so

December The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hit

2022 Wells Fargo ( WFC ) with the regulator's largest ever civil

penalty as part of a $3.7 billion agreement to

settle charges over widespread mismanagement of car

loans, mortgages and bank accounts

Carrie Tolstedt, former head of Wells Fargo's ( WFC )

retail bank avoided prison time after pleading

September guilty to an obstruction charge related to the

2023 fake-accounts scandal

February U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

2024 terminated a 2016 punishment over sales practices

May 2024 Wells Fargo ( WFC ) CEO said the asset cap imposed on the

bank by regulators was curtailing its ability to

take in more corporate deposits and expand its

trading business

September A U.S. banking regulator found Wells Fargo's ( WFC )

2024 safeguards against money laundering and other

illegal transactions were too lax and restricted

its ability to expand in risky businesses

The bank sent a third-party review of its risk and

control overhauls to the Federal Reserve as it

looked to remove an asset cap imposed by the

regulator, Bloomberg News reported, citing sources

November Wells Fargo was in the last stages of regulatory

2024 tests to lift the asset cap in 2025, Reuters

reported

The Fed must not remove Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) asset cap

until the bank has fixed its risk management and

compliance issues, top Democratic Senator Elizabeth

Warren told the U.S. central bank

December CEO Scharf expressed more confidence in the bank's

2024 progress to fix compliance problems, detailing its

efforts to implement risk controls

January A top U.S. consumer watchdog terminated a 2022

2025 order punishing the lender for allegedly

mishandling auto loans and mortgages

February The Fed terminated a pair of enforcement actions

2025 imposed in 2011, but said the bank's asset cap

remained in place

February The OCC ended a 2018 consent order related to the

2025 bank's compliance risk management program

March The OCC terminated a 2021 consent order against the

2025 lender for deficiencies in its home lending loss

mitigation practices

April The CFPB lifted a 2018 consent order related to the

2025 lender's compliance risk management

May 2025 The OCC terminated a 2015 consent order related to

the lender's previously held financial subsidiaries

May 2025 The U.S. Federal Reserve announced that Wells Fargo ( WFC )

will no longer have to operate under a $1.95

trillion asset cap

Sources: Company statements, Reuters and media reports, regulatory filings

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Lananh Nguyen and Shinjini Ganguli)