The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday fined Wells Fargo & Co. a combined $ 97.8 million for “deficient oversight” that allowed the bank to allegedly violate U.S. sanctions regulations, as the latest in a series of enforcement actions against the megabank.
The bank’s Wells Fargo Bank N.A. unit violated U.S. sanctions by providing a trade finance platform to an unnamed foreign bank, which used the platform to process $ 532 million in prohibited transactions between 2010 and 2015, according to a statement from the Fed.
“Wells Fargo is pleased to resolve this legacy matter involving conduct that ended in 2015, which we voluntarily self-reported and fully cooperated with the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Federal Reserve Board to address,” said an emailed statement from a Wells Fargo spokesperson.
Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -1.78% stock fell 1.6% on Thursday afternoon, mostly unchanged from its level prior to the enforcement action.
The Fed’s fine of $ 67.8 million — included in the $ 97.8 million total — is for “unsafe or unsound practices” related to historical inadequate oversight of sanctions compliance risk Wells Fargo Bank N.A.
The fine marks the latest of several enforcement actions against the bank, including a $ 1.93 trillion asset cap that was placed on it in 2018 by the Fed. Wells Fargo stock is down nearly 10% in 2023, compared to a 5% gain by the S&P 500 SPX, +0.48%.