The firings came in response to massive fraud that some Wells Fargo employees participated in, primarily at the company's community banks around the United States.

Wells Fargo says CEO John Stumpf and the executive who ran the bank's retail banking division will forfeit tens of millions of dollars in pay as the bank tries to stem a scandal over its sales practices.

Customers sometimes were assessed checking account overdraft fees because bank employees opened fake savings accounts and transferred money into those accounts without the customers' permission.

Also, Tolstedt, who announced her retirement this summer and was expected to stay with the bank through the end of the year, has left the company. Neither he nor Ms. Tolstedt will receive a bonus for 2016.

The board noted in its statement Tuesday that the actions against Tolstedt and Stumpf "will not preclude additional steps being taken" against them "or other executives as a outcome of the information developed in the investigation".

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The consumer banking giant, which is also the biggest US mortgage lender, fired about 5,300 employees starting in 2011 in connection with the sales practices.

Wells Fargo, the United States' third-largest bank by assets, agreed to pay $190 million earlier this month to settle regulatory charges that some of its employees opened as many as 2 million accounts without customers' knowledge, in order to meet sales targets. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who has tirelessly gone after the banking industry since the financial crisis devastated the country in 2008. The members have stated that Stumpf will recuse himself of all board-related deliberations related to the investigation. They are so desperate to bury this scandal that CEO John Stumpf has elected to forfeit a significant portion of his salary, including his bonus and stock awards. It's not clear if that could include forcing out Stumpf, who Warren and others have demanded should resign.

The bank had fired around 5,300 employees for opening as much as 2 million accounts in customers' names without their authorization. The company perhaps caught the most fire from senators last week for not utilizing its "clawback" policy to recoup all or some of the $125 million in retirement compensation received by Tolstedt. Cash and stock she already owns - including about $44 million of shares amassed during her 27-year career and $34 million in previously vested stock options - weren't eligible to be clawed back, according to the bank's filings.

Lawmakers have called on additional US agencies, including the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission, to open probes.

"Wells Fargo has diligently and professionally worked with the state for the past 17 years to support the government and people of California".