A federal judge in San Francisco has signed off on a $480 million settlement in a class-action shareholder lawsuit over Wells Fargo’s unauthorized-accounts scandal.

The deal, granted preliminary approval late Tuesday, would compensate Wells Fargo & Co. shareholders for losses they suffered after the bank in 2016 acknowledged it had created perhaps millions of accounts without customers’ authorization.

Shareholders, including lead plaintiff Union Asset Management, sued for securities fraud, arguing that executives had inflated the bank’s stock price by claiming for years that Wells Fargo was a leader in so-called cross-selling — getting customers to sign up for numerous accounts and services.

Executives continued to tout the practice, the defendants argued, even after it became clear that aggressive sales goals and quotas were “corrupting, rather than reinforcing, Wells Fargo’s purported corporate values and cross-selling business model.”

The company and plaintiffs reached a settlement deal in May. Wells Fargo at the time said it had set aside funds to pay the settlement though it denied shareholders’ allegations and said it agreed to the deal “to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.”

Bank spokesman Ancel Martinez said Wednesday that putting the case to rest is in the best interest of the bank’s employees, shareholders and customers.

“We are making strong progress in our work to rebuild trust, and this represents another step forward,” he said.

It’s not clear how big a payout Wells Fargo shareholders might get. Now that the deal has been granted preliminary approval, shareholders will have the chance to file claims.

The settlement is open to anyone who bought Wells Fargo stock between Feb. 26, 2014, and Sept. 20, 2016.