Jan 28 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo ( WFC ) said on Tuesday

its 2022 consent order with the Consumer Financial Protection

Bureau related to automobile lending, consumer deposit accounts

and mortgage lending has been terminated.

The termination, which is the seventh consent order closed

by Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) regulators since 2019, is a win for CEO Charles

Scharf, who has worked to address the U.S. banking giant's

longstanding regulatory issues.

A consent order is a formal, public enforcement action

between a regulator and a bank, which often comes with a fine

and directives to address an issue in a timely fashion.

Wells Fargo's ( WFC ) compliance issues took center stage after a

fake-accounts scandal and its fraudulent sales practices came to

light in 2016. Regulators mandated additional oversight of the

lender in the wake of the turmoil.

The U.S. Federal Reserve imposed a $1.95 trillion asset cap

on Wells Fargo ( WFC ) in 2018 and ordered the bank to fix failings in

its governance and risk management after years of consumer

abuse.

The asset cap is seen as one of the toughest punishments

U.S. regulators can put in place, and its removal requires a

vote by the Fed's board of governors.

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.

The punishment could be removed as early as the first half

of 2025, a source said at the time.

The bank's cleanup efforts would take a major step forward

once the restrictions are lifted. Since the scandal, Wells Fargo ( WFC )

has been fined billions of dollars and slapped with a raft of

regulatory punishments, some of which are still in place.

Early last year, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the

Currency also terminated a 2016 punishment for the bank's sales

practices.