Wells Fargo & Co.'s regulator on Thursday announced it had brought civil charges against eight former executives, including former Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, marking the first federal action against individuals for their role in the bank's three-year sales practices scandal.

The unprecedented enforcement action by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which has been under pressure from lawmakers to take a tough line on the bank, is one of a long list of investigations into the San Francisco-based lender.

Others, including ongoing probes by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, could result in further individual charges. One person with knowledge of the OCC probe said it was far-reaching and that more individuals could potentially be charged in future.

Some of the OCC's findings also contradict Wells Fargo's 2017 board report into the scandal, and is likely to spark further questions by lawmakers and regulators about the bank's efforts to fix its cultural problems. That report largely pinned the blame on a small number of executives, in particular the bank's former retail banking head Carrie Tolstedt, but on Thursday the OCC said many members of the bank's senior leadership were culpable.

Stumpf agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle the charges, while former human resources head Hope Hardison and Michael Loughlin, former chief risk officer, settled for $2.25 million and $1.25 million, respectively, the OCC said.

Stumpf, who could not immediately be reached for comment, also agreed to a lifetime ban on working for an OCC-regulated bank. He abruptly left the company in October of 2016 after a nearly a decade at the helm.

Five other former executives refused to settle, including Tolstedt who is facing a potential $25 million civil monetary penalty, James Strother, the former general counsel, and Claudia Russ Anderson, the former community bank group risk officer, who both face $5 million fines. They and two auditing executives will fight the charges before a judge under the OCC's administrative process.

"Throughout her career, Ms. Tolstedt acted with the utmost integrity and concern for doing the right thing. A full and fair examination of the facts will vindicate Carrie," a lawyer for Tolstedt said in a statement.

In a statement, Strother's lawyer said the former Wells Fargo executive "acted with the utmost integrity and transparency" and that the OCC’s charges are "false and unfounded."

Russ Anderson could not immediately be reached for comment.

In a memo to Wells Fargo employees, CEO Charlie Scharf said the company was reviewing Thursday's filings and will determine what, if any, further action is appropriate in respect to any of the individuals who were named. The memo added that the bank would not make any remaining compensation payments that may be owed to those individuals in the meantime.

INDIVIDUAL MISCONDUCT

Wells Fargo, the country's fourth largest U.S. lender, has paid out more than $4 billion in fines and penalties since the 2016 revelation that the bank's sales practices encouraged employees to open potentially millions of unauthorized bank accounts in order to hit lofty sales targets.

Since then, internal and external probes have uncovered issues in each of Wells Fargo's major business lines, including wealth management and the commercial bank. The fallout has also resulted in the Federal Reserve imposing an unprecedented growth restriction on Wells Fargo's balance sheet until it proves it has fixed its risk management and controls.

While Wells Fargo has inked multiple federal and private settlements for its sales practices, the OCC action marks the first federal action against individuals for their roles in the scandal, instead of just the institution.

In its complaint, the OCC said that senior bank leadership must have been aware of rampant sales misconduct, citing large numbers of employee complaints and years' worth of other evidence. For example, an internal investigation conducted by the bank in 2004 found that instances in which staff "gamed" the sales system to meet targets climbed 979% from 2000 to 2004.

The number of calls to the bank's internal ethics hotline steadily climbed from 2006 through 2014, the OCC said, with nearly half of all cases investigated related to sales misconduct.

In bringing its charges, the OCC said the eight individuals failed to adequately perform their responsibilities, which contributed to the bank’s systemic sales practices problems.

"The misconduct of these individuals allowed the practices to continue for years, affecting millions of bank customers and thousands of lower-level bank employees," it said.