FILE PHOTO: The sign outside the Wells Fargo & Co. bank in downtown Denver April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co is engaged in preliminary exploratory resolution discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about inquiries into its sales practices, the bank said on Wednesday.

Wells Fargo said in a regulatory filing it had no assurance on the outcomes of the talks.

The bank raised the high end of its estimated range of potential losses related to legal matters to $2.7 billion as of Dec. 31. Wells Fargo had lowered its estimate from that figure in 2018, it said, without elaborating.

This estimated range is considered a separate accounting item from the legal reserves the bank keeps, as it is used to cover all matters considered “reasonably possible,” it added.