In 2018, the Federal Reserve hit Wells Fargo with an asset cap after a yearslong record of misconduct.

Tuesday, the Fed lifted that growth restriction. Wells Fargo has improved its internal governance and risk management enough to be released from its fetters, the regulator said.

The end of the cap reflects the bank’s “focused management leadership, strong board oversight and strict supervision,” said Michael S. Barr, a Fed governor who recently ended his service as the board’s vice chair for supervision. He said the three improvements “will need to continue for the firm to have a sustainable approach.”

The San Francisco-based bank and its CEO Charles W. Scharf called it “a pivotal milestone” in the company’s transformation.

Wells Fargo said it would grant nearly all of its 215,000 full-time workers an award valued at $2,000. For most, the prize will come in the form of a restricted stock grant, which the company described as a way to give its workers “an opportunity to own a part of Wells Fargo and hopefully benefit from our future success.”

Scharf took on the top job at Wells Fargo in 2019, after the bank’s series of scandals toppled two chief executives. In 2016, federal regulators and local officials in California revealed that the bank’s employees had for years created bank accounts for unwitting customers, without their consent, to meet aggressive sales goals.

That discovery was followed by others, including mistakes that led to improper home foreclosures and auto repossessions. The bank paid billions of dollars in fines and billions more in refunds to customers it had harmed.

U.S. growth is likely to slow to 1.6%

US growth likely to slow to 1.6% this year, hobbled by Trump’s trade wars, OECD says | U.S. economic growth will slow to 1.6% this year from 2.8% last year as President Donald Trump’s erratic trade wars disrupt global commerce, drive up costs and leave businesses and consumers paralyzed by uncertainty.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast Tuesday that the U.S. economy — the world’s largest — will slow further to just 1.5% in 2026.

Trump’s policies have raised average U.S. tariff rates from around 2.5% when he returned to the White House to 15.4%, highest since 1938, according to the OECD.

Tariffs raise costs for consumers and American manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials and components.

World economic growth will slow to just 2.9% this year and stay there in 2026, according to the OECD’s forecast. It marks a substantial deceleration from growth of 3.3% global growth last year and 3.4% in 2023.

P&G cutting 7,000 jobs in near future

Procter & Gamble will cut up to 7,000 jobs, or approximately 6% of its global workforce, over the next two years as the maker of Tide detergent and Pampers diapers implements a restructuring program amid an environment dealing with trade wars and customers anxious about the economy.

The job cuts, announced at the Deutsche Bank Consumer Conference in Paris on Thursday, make up about 15% of its current nonmanufacturing workforce, said Chief Financial Officer Andre Schulten.

The cuts are part of a broader restructuring program. Procter & Gamble will also end sales of some of its products in certain markets. Procter & Gamble said it will provide more details about that in July.

Reddit files lawsuit against Anthropic

San Francisco-based Reddit sued artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, saying it has used the social media company’s content without permission to train its AI models.

The lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges that Anthropic attempted to access Reddit data more than 100,000 times since last July. Reddit said this “unauthorized commercial use of its content” has breached its rules and exploited users’ personal data without their consent.

An Anthropic spokesperson said the company disagrees “with Reddit’s claims and will defend ourselves vigorously,” The AI firm, which was started by a group of ex-OpenAI employees, has taken a public position of being more oriented toward safety and responsibility than some of its competitors.

Reddit called Anthropic’s emphasis on trust and honesty “empty marketing gimmicks.”

Compiled from New York Times, Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.