Wells Fargo will pay $300 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it improperly charged customers for unneeded auto-collision protection insurance — and hid the practice from investors.

In February 2018, the Federal Reserve prohibited the San Francisco-based bank from growing beyond $1.95 trillion. Five years later, analysts, investors and lawmakers are left with more questions than answers about the unprecedented enforcement action.

Wells Fargo kept Chief Executive Charlie Scharf's pay at $24.5 million for 2022, a year in which both profit and stock tumbled and the bank continued to grapple with the fallout from a raft of scandals.

The company will also be reducing its servicing portfolio.

Big banks are aiming to bring their existing technologists up to speed with cloud certification and other modern architecture training.

Many in Utqiagvik, Alaska, say they like banking with the country's fourth-largest bank. But they also want more banking options in their town, a reality that rural communities across the United States face.

Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the bank is "not making rapid progress" and hinted at the possibility of additional restrictions. But analysts saw positives for Wells in the $3.7 billion consent order.

An administrative law judge has recommended that a trio of onetime Wells executives be ordered to pay a combined $18.5 million in connection with the bank's fake-accounts scandal.

Wells Fargo cut hundreds more mortgage employees Thursday, the latest in a series of reductions across the industry after higher interest rates brought the pandemic-era home-lending boom to halt.