WASHINGTON -- A federal banking industry regulator has fined Wells Fargo after its employees were found to have secretly opened deposit and credit card accounts in order to meet sales quotas.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Thursday that workers at the banking giant, which has 294 branches in New Jersey, opened up to 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without consumers' permission. The Sioux Falls, S.D. -based bank faces fines totaling $185 million, including $100 million to the bureau, $35 million to the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and $50 million to the city and county of Los Angeles.

In addition, the bank must make full restitution to the victims. The refunds are expected to total about $2.5 million and affected consumers are not required to do anything to get refunds, the CFPB said.

"Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses," CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. "Because of the severity of these violations, Wells Fargo is paying the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed. Today's action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs, if not monitored carefully, carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences."

The bank has fired about 5,300 employees, some of whom created phony PIN numbers and email addresses in order to enroll customers, CNN Money reported.

A copy of the full consent order can be found here.

Note: This post was updated in December 2018 to fix a photo glitch.

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