Wells Fargo will close more than 400 branches nationwide in the next couple of years as the bank seeks to control costs as part of the fallout from a phantom account scandal that erupted last year.

“Based on observed trends in customer behavior, we began to accelerate branch closures in 2016 and closed 84 branches mostly in the second half of the year,” John Shrewsberry, Wells Fargo’s chief financial officer, said during a call with analysts last week. “We expect the pace of branch closures to increase to 200 branches in 2017 and we expect closures at that level or slightly higher in 2018.”

The bank this week announced an overhaul to of compensation plans for tellers and other bank branch employees. Incentives are now tied to how frequently customers use their accounts.

CEO Tim Sloan and Mary Mack, the head of Wells Fargo's community bank division, prioritized changes to the employee compensation plan after taking the jobs in the wake of the scandal. Wells Fargo in September said it was eliminating incentives that led employees to open 2 million accounts without telling customers.

"Do they use the products they have with us? Do they think of us as their primary bank? Are we growing customers who consider us their primary bank? These are the metrics we are now measuring," Mack told The Associated Press.

Wells Fargo employees also will get a higher base salary and lower bonus compensation.