WASHINGTON (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 its governance and risk management programs, and completing a third-party review of its overhaul.

"The removal of the growth restriction reflects the substantial progress the bank has made in addressing its deficiencies and that the bank has fulfilled the conditions required for removal of the growth restriction," the Fed said in a statement.

The Fed board voted unanimously to lift the restriction, which was the first time the central bank had directly ordered a bank to stop growing in order to address widespread shortcomings.

The decision marks the end of the bank's longstanding efforts to repair the damage from a fake accounts scandal that erupted in 2016, drawing public criticism and billions of dollars in fines.

While the bank still faces some additional oversight from the Fed as part of the 2018 order, the removal of the asset cap marks a major shift for the nation's fourth-largest lender, which saw multiple executives forced out as regulators piled fines and restrictions on the bank for numerous scandals, most notably bank employees creating millions of unauthorized fake accounts to meet sales targets.

It paid billions in penalties and was also slapped with lawsuits from customers and shareholders. Before current CEO Charles Scharf was hired, two CEOs left the bank in the wake of the controversy.

The latest move hands a major victory to Scharf, who has been cleaning up the bank since taking the top job in 2019. The lender cleared numerous consent orders this year, and over a dozen since 2019.