Wells Fargo is struggling to fill its open chief executive officer role, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Two of the bank's top candidates declined offers to lead the fourth-largest U.S. bank.

PNC's chief executive officer, William Demchak, and former U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis both turned down the Wells Fargo board's offer to head the bank, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

Wells Fargo was pursuing Gordon Smith, the CEO of J.P. Morgan's consumer and community bank, to take the helm, but Smith told the Journal that he is likely staying at J.P. Morgan.

Former CEO Tim Sloan resigned in March, after 31 years at Wells Fargo. Sloan was supposed to clean up the mess left by his predecessor, but he struggled to satisfy regulators' demands to revamp the bank.

In 2016, news that employees at Wells Fargo had created millions of fake banks accounts to meet sales quotas severely damaged the reputation of the bank and spurred scrutiny from regulators. Last year, the Federal Reserve capped the bank's asset growth after Wells Fargo discovered more problems with customer dealings.

The bank's general counsel, Allen Parker, took over as interim CEO after Sloan's resignation.

Shares of Wells Fargo are down more than 16% over the last 12 months and have fallen more than 3% since Sloan stepped down.

— Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.