Wells Fargo down for fifth consecutive day after phantom account scandal

Shares in American bank Wells Fargo have fallen 8% since revelations over the creation of fake accounts to meet sales targets broke last week.

Thursday marked the fifth day that the California-based bank has slipped, after it got slapped with a $185m fine for the discrepancies and sacked 5,300 employees.

In a week that has gone from bad to worse for Wells following its demotion from the position of world's largest bank by market capitalisation, lawyers in New York and San Francisco have opened criminal enquiries against the lender.

Pressure is now growing on chief executive John Strumpf to step down from his position, as investors continue to pull out. Strumpf is due to appear at a Senate Banking Committee hearing this month in order to explain the group's actions.

The bank fell 1.8% to $45.67 on Thursday morning, and are down 8.3% since the close last Wednesday.

Two million bank accounts and credit cards were registered to unknowing customers, as staff aggressively tried to pursue sales targets set for them.