Stephen Sanger, the bank's lead director, will serve as the board's non-executive chairman. Mr Stumpf's end at Wells Fargo comes a little over a month after the bank was fined 185 million dollars (£151 million) by Californian and federal regulators over its sales practices. The regulators alleged employees trying to meet aggressive sales targets opened bank and credit card accounts, moved money between those accounts and even created fake email addresses to sign customers up for online banking - all without customer authorisation. Debit cards were issued and activated, as well as PINs created, without customers' knowledge. Mr Stumpf had previously gained acclaim for navigating Wells Fargo through the financial crisis and keeping it free of scandal, but he came under withering pressure over the alleged misconduct, believed to have gone on at the bank for years. About 5,300 lower-level employees were fired.