US banking giant Wells Fargo has sacked a number of employees following claims that staff were faking keyboard activity to fool the company into thinking they were working when they were not.

It is not yet clear how the issue was discovered or whether it was specifically related to people working from home.

The US bank said staff had been fired or resigned “after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating impression of active work”.

New rules recently came into effect in the US which mean that brokers working from home must be inspected every three years.