The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could have fined Wells Fargo in excess of $10 billion for its illegal sales practices but instead settled for $100 million, according to the agency's internal documents released by congressional Republicans this week.

The CFPB also had evidence that the bank's sales problems went back to at least 2006, far earlier than the 2011 to 2016 timetable that Wells Fargo originally admitted to, the documents show.

“The bank knew since at least 2006 that its employees were gaming its incentive compensation program, yet failed to take actions sufficient to stop it,” CFPB employees wrote in a 2016 confidential memo.