Wells Fargo is exempt from federal restrictions and now wants to improve the detection of crime risks

Wells Fargo has agreed to work with U.S. banking regulators to strengthen its financial crime risk management, including internal controls related to suspicious activity and money laundering.

Wells Fargo shares rose 2.4 percent on Friday.

The agreement came just seven months after the Biden administration lifted a settlement order against the bank that had been in place since 2016 following a series of scandals, including the opening of fake customer accounts.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it had found “deficiencies in the bank’s financial crime risk management practices and internal anti-money laundering controls in several areas.”

The list included, among others, suspicious activity, reporting of foreign exchange transactions and customer due diligence.

The agreement, announced this week, requires the bank to take “comprehensive corrective actions” to improve compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and U.S. sanctions programs.

“We have been working to meet a significant portion of the requirements of the formal agreement and we are committed to completing this work with the same urgency as our other regulatory obligations,” the bank said in a press release.

The agreement requires the bank's board of directors to maintain a compliance committee with at least three members, the majority of whom must not be employees or officers of the bank or its subsidiaries. The committee is required to submit a quarterly report to the board outlining the “specific corrective actions” the bank has taken, the results of those actions, and any additional actions it considers need to be taken to ensure compliance.

A series of newspaper and government investigations in 2016 found that Wells had a toxic sales culture that pressured employees to sell customers unwanted or unneeded products, coerced employees into opening millions of unauthorized accounts, and had some customers' identities stolen and their credit scores compromised.

The scandal damaged the reputation of the San Francisco-based bank, which was considered by analysts and investors to be one of the best in the country.

Wells Fargo reformed its board and management, paid over a billion dollars in penalties and fines, and spent eight years trying to show the public that its bad practices were a thing of the past.

Wells Fargo shares have risen more than 8% since regulators lifted an 8-year restriction on the bank in February, rising to $52.47 on Friday.