Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said he wants to see such a move.

"I'm not going to volunteer to be Wells Fargo's PR firm," the Texas lawmaker said.

"I'll tell you this: if I was a shareholder, I would be outraged if there weren't clawbacks," Hensarling told reporters at the annual meeting of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, referring to the maneuver to take back executives' pay.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Wells Fargo's board is likely to decide on whether to claw back pay from former retail banking head Carrie Tolstedt and Chief Executive John Stumpf ahead of a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday.

Lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee grilled Stumpf last week over the accounts scandal, with some calling on him to resign and forfeit his earnings and hold other senior executives accountable.

Hensarling, however, said he would not call for the bank to take any action.

"As a member of Congress, our business is applying the law. Our business is making sure that the remedies of fines and penalties and, where necessary, criminal prosecution - if the facts warrant - that's the business of government."

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Paul Simao)