Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the second largest bank by market capitalization. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit card. In 2007 it was the only bank in the United States to be rated AAA by S&P, though its rating has since been lowered to AA- in light of the financial crisis of 2007–2010.
The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota for legal purposes.
Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of an acquisition of California-based Wells Fargo & Company by Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. Although Norwest was technically the surviving entity, the new company renamed itself Wells Fargo, capitalizing on the 150-year history of the nationally-recognized name and its trademark stagecoach. Following the acquisition, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls.
In 2010 Wells Fargo had 6,335 retail branches (called stores by Wells Fargo), 12,000 automated teller machines, 280,000 employees and over 70 million customers. Wells Fargo operates stores and ATMs under Wells Fargo's and Wachovia's names.
Wells Fargo is one of the Big Four banks of the United States with Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company, ranking as the seventh largest bank holding company in the United States as of 2000. The company's community banking operations serve nearly 11 million customers through more than 3,000 bank branches (or what the company calls 'stores') in 23 states, most of which are in the western United States--Ohio being the easternmost state of operation. Wells Fargo is the nation's number one home mortgage lender, with more than 1,200 'stores' serving all 50 states. The company is one of the top 'cross-sellers' of financial services in the country, offering credit cards, personal loans, wealth management services, and insurance (the firm is the nation's second largest crop insurer). Business-oriented services include commercial banking services, lending, investment banking, venture capital, and equipment leasing. Wells Fargo is one of the leaders in the realm of online banking, having become the first major financial services firm to offer Internet banking back in 1995.
The Wells Fargo of the early 21st century is the product of more than 1,500 mergers over a nearly 150-year history. The bank has three main predecessors, however. In 1998 Norwest Corporation acquired the original Wells Fargo & Company and adopted the acquiree's name. Norwest's history originates in 1929 when several Midwest banks joined forces within a banking cooperative called Northwest Bancorporation, which was known as Banco. During the 1980s, Banco diversified into other areas of financial services, its affiliates reorganized, and Banco changed its name in 1983 to Norwest. Fifteen years later it acquired the original Wells Fargo. Wells traces its origins to a banking and express business formed in 1852 to exploit the economic opportunities created by the California gold rush. The banking operation split off from the express business in 1905. Throughout its colorful history, the company provided innovative services to its customers and demonstrated an ability to weather economic conditions that ruined its competitors. In 1996 Wells Fargo acquired Los Angeles-based First Interstate Bancorp in a major takeover. First Interstate first emerged as a separate company in 1957 as a spinoff of the banking interests of Transamerica Corporation called Firstamerica Bancorporation. Four years later the company was renamed Western Bancorporation, and in 1981 it adopted the First Interstate name. As it traced its origins to Transamerica, First Interstate had a lineage dating to 1904, when A.P. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.
Wells Fargo & Company (Wells Fargo) is a diversified financial services company. The Company provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage banking, investment banking, retail banking, brokerage, and consumer finance through banking stores, the Internet and other distribution channels to consumers, businesses and institutions in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in other countries. The Company operates in three segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement. The Company provides other financial services through subsidiaries engaged in various businesses, principally: wholesale banking, mortgage banking, consumer finance, equipment leasing, agricultural finance, commercial finance, securities brokerage and investment banking, insurance agency and brokerage services, computer and data processing services, trust services, investment advisory services, mortgage-backed securities servicing and venture capital investment.
In April 2010, the Company announced that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has completed its acquisition of the North American factoring portfolio of the Commercial Services Division of GMAC Commercial Finance. In July 2010, Wells Fargo & Co. announced the restructuring of its Wells Fargo Financial division, including closing its 638 Wells Fargo Financial stores across the United States and exiting the origination of non-prime portfolio mortgage loans. The remaining consumer and commercial loan products offered through Wells Fargo Financial will be realigned with those offered by other Wells Fargo business units and will be available through Wells Fargo's network of community banking and home mortgage stores.
Community Banking
Community Banking offers a complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses, including investment, insurance and trust services in 39 states and District of Columbia, and mortgage and home equity loans in all 50 states and District of Columbia through its Regional Banking and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage business units. Community Banking also offers investment management and other services to retail customers and securities brokerage through affiliates. These products and services include the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, a family of mutual funds. Loan products include lines of credit, auto floor plan lines, equity lines and loans, equipment and transportation loans, education loans, origination and purchase of residential mortgage loans and servicing of mortgage loans and credit cards. Other credit products and financial services available to small businesses and their owners include equipment leases, real estate and other commercial financing, Small Business Administration financing, venture capital financing, cash management, payroll services, retirement plans, Health Savings Accounts, credit cards, and merchant payment processing.
Community Banking also purchases sales finance contracts from retail merchants throughout the United States and directly from auto dealers in Puerto Rico. Consumer and business deposit products include checking accounts, savings deposits, market rate accounts, Individual Retirement Accounts, time deposits and debit cards. Community Banking serves customers through a complete range of channels, including traditional banking stores, in-store banking centers, business centers, automated teller machines (ATMs), online and mobile banking, and Wells Fargo Customer Connection, a 24-hours a day, seven days a week telephone service.
Wholesale Banking
Wholesale Banking provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States with annual sales generally in excess of $20 million and to financial institutions globally. Products and businesses include commercial banking, investment banking and capital markets, securities investment, government and institutional banking, corporate banking, commercial real estate, treasury management, capital finance, international, insurance, real estate capital markets, commercial mortgage servicing, corporate trust, equipment finance, asset backed finance, and asset management. Wholesale Banking provides a complete line of commercial, corporate, capital markets, cash management and real estate banking products and services. These include traditional commercial loans and lines of credit, letters of credit, asset-based lending, equipment leasing, international trade facilities, trade financing, collection services, foreign exchange services, treasury management, investment management, institutional fixed-income sales, interest rate, commodity and equity risk management, online/electronic products, such as the Commercial Electronic Office (CEO) portal, insurance, corporate trust fiduciary and agency services, and investment banking services.
Wholesale Banking manages customer investments through institutional separate accounts and mutual funds, including the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and Wells Capital Management. Wholesale Banking also supports the commercial real estate (CRE) market with products and services such as construction loans for commercial and residential development, land acquisition and development loans, secured and unsecured lines of credit, interim financing arrangements for completed structures, rehabilitation loans, affordable housing loans and letters of credit, permanent loans for securitization, CRE loan servicing and real estate and mortgage brokerage services
Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement
Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement provides a range of financial advisory services to clients using a planning approach to meet each client’s needs. Wealth Management provides high-net-worth clients with a range of wealth management solutions, including financial planning, private banking, credit, investment management and trust. Family Wealth meets the needs of ultra high-net-worth customers. Brokerage serves customers’ advisory, brokerage and financial needs. Retirement provides institutional retirement and trust services (including 401(k) and pension plan record keeping) for businesses, retail retirement solutions for individuals, and reinsurance services for the life insurance industry.
The integration of Norwest and Wells Fargo proceeded much more smoothly than the combination of Wells Fargo and First Interstate. A key reason was that the process was allowed to progress at a much slower and more manageable pace than that of the earlier merger. The plan allowed for two to three years to complete the integration, while the cost-cutting goal was a more modest $650 million in annual savings within three years. Rather than the mass layoffs that were typical of many mergers, Wells Fargo announced a workforce reduction of only 4,000 to 5,000 employees over a two-year period.
Continuing the Norwest tradition of making numerous smaller acquisitions each year, Wells Fargo acquired 13 companies during 1999 with total assets of $2.4 billion. The largest of these was the February purchase of Brownsville, Texas-based Mercantile Financial Enterprises, Inc., which had $779 million in assets. The acquisition pace picked up in 2000 with Wells Fargo expanding its retail banking into two more states: Michigan, through the buyout of Michigan Financial Corporation ($975 million in assets), and Alaska, through the purchase of National Bancorp of Alaska Inc. ($3 billion in assets). Wells Fargo also acquired First Commerce Bancshares, Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska, which had $2.9 billion in assets, and a Seattle-based regional brokerage firm, Ragen MacKenzie Group Incorporated. In October 2000 Wells Fargo made its largest deal since the Norwest-Wells Fargo merger when it paid nearly $3 billion in stock for First Security Corporation, a $23 billion bank holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and operating in seven western states. Wells Fargo thereby became the largest banking franchise in terms of deposits in New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah; as well as the largest banking franchise in the West overall.
Following completion of the First Security acquisition, Wells Fargo had total assets of $263 billion. Its strategy echoed that of the old Norwest: making selective acquisitions and pursuing cross-selling of an ever-wider array of credit and investment products to its vast customer base. Under Kovacevich's leadership, Wells Fargo was posting smart growth in revenues and profits and was the envy of the banking industry for the smooth way in which it had completed the Norwest-Wells Fargo merger as well as its knack for integrating smaller banks. Although there was speculation that the next 'stage' for Wells Fargo might involve a major merger with an eastern bank that would create a nationwide retail bank or a merger that would bring the bank one of the two other things it did not have--a global presence and a large investment banking arm--Kovacevich seemed content with the concentration on western U.S. banking and the broader finance and mortgage operations. Wells Fargo was more profitable than most of the 'megabanks' that had formed in the 1990s, with the reason perhaps lying in its more modest ambitions.
Principal Subsidiaries: Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A.; Norwest Limited, L.L.C.; Norwest Venture Partners VI, LP; WFC Holdings Corporation; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Principal Competitors: Bank One Corporation; Bank of America Corporation; Citigroup Inc.; Fifth Third Bancorp; Firstar Corporation; General Electric Capital Corporation; Golden State Bancorp Inc.; Golden West Financial Corporation; Household International, Inc.; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; KeyCorp; National City Corporation; The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; Sanwa Bank California; The Sumitomo Bank, Limited; U.S. Bancorp; UnionBanCal Corporation; Washington Mutual, Inc.; Zions Bancorporation.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.36
Market Cap (Mil.): $147,724.50
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 5,289.10
Annual Dividend: 0.48
Yield (%): 1.72
FINANCIALS
WFC Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 11.52 17.62 26.13
EPS (TTM): 45.31 -- --
ROI: -- 0.00 4.83
ROE: 11.23 4.32 9.92
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1968 as Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; 1983 as Norwest Corporation
Employees: 114,000
Total Assets: $263 billion (2000)
Stock Exchanges: New York Chicago
Ticker Symbol: WFC
NAIC: 522110 Commercial Banking; 522210 Credit Card Issuing; 522220 Sales Financing; 522291 Consumer Lending; 522292 Real Estate Credit; 522298 All Other Nondepository Credit Intermediation; 523110 Investment Banking and Securities Dealing; 523120 Securities Brokerage; 523920 Portfolio Management; 523991 Trust, Fiduciary, and Custody Activities; 524210 Insurance Agencies and Brokerages; 551111 Offices of Bank Holding Companies
Key Dates:
1852: Henry Wells and William G. Fargo form Wells, Fargo & Company to provide express and banking services to California.
1860: Wells Fargo gains control of Overland Mail Company, leading to operation of the western portion of the Pony Express.
1866: 'Grand consolidation' unites Wells Fargo, Holladay, and Overland Mail stage lines under the Wells Fargo name.
1904: A.P. Giannini creates the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.
1905: Wells Fargo separates its banking and express operations; Wells Fargo's bank is merged with the Nevada National Bank to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.
1923: Wells Fargo Nevada merges with the Union Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.
1928: Giannini forms Transamerica Corporation as a holding company for his banking and other interests.
1929: Northwest Bancorporation, or Banco, is formed as a banking association.
1954: Wells shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
1957: Transamerica spins off its banking operations, including 23 banks in 11 western states, as Firstamerica Corporation.
1960: Wells Fargo merges with American Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company.
1961: Firstamerica changes its name to Western Bancorporation.
1962: Wells again shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
1968: Wells converts to a federal banking charter, becoming Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
1969: Wells Fargo & Company holding company is formed, with Wells Fargo Bank as its main subsidiary.
1981: Western Bancorporation changes its name to First Interstate Bancorp.
1982: Banco acquires consumer finance firm Dial Corporation, which is renamed Norwest Financial Service the following year.
1983: Banco is renamed Norwest Corporation.
1986: Wells Fargo acquires Crocker National Corporation.
1988: Wells Fargo acquires Barclays Bank of California.
1995: Wells Fargo becomes the first major financial services firm to offer Internet banking.
1996: Wells Fargo acquires First Interstate for $11.3 billion.
1998: Norwest acquires Wells Fargo for $31.7 billion and adopts the Wells Fargo name.
2000: Wells Fargo acquires First Security Corporation.
Name Age Since Current Position
John Stumpf 57 2010 Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Sloan 50 2011 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Avid Modjtabai 49 2007 Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Michael Loughlin 55 2010 Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer
James Strother 59 2004 Executive Vice President, General Counsel
Richard Levy 53 2007 Executive Vice President, Controller
Mark Oman 56 2009 Senior Executive Vice President - Home and Consumer Finance
Patricia Callahan 57 2011 Senior Executive Vice President
David Hoyt 55 2005 Senior Executive Vice President - Wholesale Banking
Carrie Tolstedt 51 2007 Senior Executive Vice President - Community Banking
Kevin Rhein 57 2009 Executive Vice President - Card Services and Consumer Lending
David Carroll 53 2009 Senior Executive Vice President - Wealth Management, Brokerage and Retirement Services
Philip Quigley 68 2009 Lead Independent Director
Richard McCormick 70 1983 Independent Director
Cynthia Milligan 64 1992 Independent Director
Susan Engel 64 1998 Independent Director
Judith Runstad 66 1998 Independent Director
Susan Swenson 63 1994 Independent Director
Enrique Hernandez 55 2003 Independent Director
Stephen Sanger 65 2003 Independent Director
Llyod Dean 60 2005 Independent Director
Nicholas Moore 69 2006 Independent Director
John Chen 55 2006 Independent Director
John Baker 62 2009 Independent Director
Donald James 62 2009 Independent Director
Mackey McDonald 64 2009 Independent Director
Address:
420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94163
U.S.A.
The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota for legal purposes.
Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of an acquisition of California-based Wells Fargo & Company by Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. Although Norwest was technically the surviving entity, the new company renamed itself Wells Fargo, capitalizing on the 150-year history of the nationally-recognized name and its trademark stagecoach. Following the acquisition, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls.
In 2010 Wells Fargo had 6,335 retail branches (called stores by Wells Fargo), 12,000 automated teller machines, 280,000 employees and over 70 million customers. Wells Fargo operates stores and ATMs under Wells Fargo's and Wachovia's names.
Wells Fargo is one of the Big Four banks of the United States with Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.
Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company, ranking as the seventh largest bank holding company in the United States as of 2000. The company's community banking operations serve nearly 11 million customers through more than 3,000 bank branches (or what the company calls 'stores') in 23 states, most of which are in the western United States--Ohio being the easternmost state of operation. Wells Fargo is the nation's number one home mortgage lender, with more than 1,200 'stores' serving all 50 states. The company is one of the top 'cross-sellers' of financial services in the country, offering credit cards, personal loans, wealth management services, and insurance (the firm is the nation's second largest crop insurer). Business-oriented services include commercial banking services, lending, investment banking, venture capital, and equipment leasing. Wells Fargo is one of the leaders in the realm of online banking, having become the first major financial services firm to offer Internet banking back in 1995.
The Wells Fargo of the early 21st century is the product of more than 1,500 mergers over a nearly 150-year history. The bank has three main predecessors, however. In 1998 Norwest Corporation acquired the original Wells Fargo & Company and adopted the acquiree's name. Norwest's history originates in 1929 when several Midwest banks joined forces within a banking cooperative called Northwest Bancorporation, which was known as Banco. During the 1980s, Banco diversified into other areas of financial services, its affiliates reorganized, and Banco changed its name in 1983 to Norwest. Fifteen years later it acquired the original Wells Fargo. Wells traces its origins to a banking and express business formed in 1852 to exploit the economic opportunities created by the California gold rush. The banking operation split off from the express business in 1905. Throughout its colorful history, the company provided innovative services to its customers and demonstrated an ability to weather economic conditions that ruined its competitors. In 1996 Wells Fargo acquired Los Angeles-based First Interstate Bancorp in a major takeover. First Interstate first emerged as a separate company in 1957 as a spinoff of the banking interests of Transamerica Corporation called Firstamerica Bancorporation. Four years later the company was renamed Western Bancorporation, and in 1981 it adopted the First Interstate name. As it traced its origins to Transamerica, First Interstate had a lineage dating to 1904, when A.P. Giannini opened the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.
Wells Fargo & Company (Wells Fargo) is a diversified financial services company. The Company provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage banking, investment banking, retail banking, brokerage, and consumer finance through banking stores, the Internet and other distribution channels to consumers, businesses and institutions in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and in other countries. The Company operates in three segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement. The Company provides other financial services through subsidiaries engaged in various businesses, principally: wholesale banking, mortgage banking, consumer finance, equipment leasing, agricultural finance, commercial finance, securities brokerage and investment banking, insurance agency and brokerage services, computer and data processing services, trust services, investment advisory services, mortgage-backed securities servicing and venture capital investment.
In April 2010, the Company announced that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has completed its acquisition of the North American factoring portfolio of the Commercial Services Division of GMAC Commercial Finance. In July 2010, Wells Fargo & Co. announced the restructuring of its Wells Fargo Financial division, including closing its 638 Wells Fargo Financial stores across the United States and exiting the origination of non-prime portfolio mortgage loans. The remaining consumer and commercial loan products offered through Wells Fargo Financial will be realigned with those offered by other Wells Fargo business units and will be available through Wells Fargo's network of community banking and home mortgage stores.
Community Banking
Community Banking offers a complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses, including investment, insurance and trust services in 39 states and District of Columbia, and mortgage and home equity loans in all 50 states and District of Columbia through its Regional Banking and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage business units. Community Banking also offers investment management and other services to retail customers and securities brokerage through affiliates. These products and services include the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, a family of mutual funds. Loan products include lines of credit, auto floor plan lines, equity lines and loans, equipment and transportation loans, education loans, origination and purchase of residential mortgage loans and servicing of mortgage loans and credit cards. Other credit products and financial services available to small businesses and their owners include equipment leases, real estate and other commercial financing, Small Business Administration financing, venture capital financing, cash management, payroll services, retirement plans, Health Savings Accounts, credit cards, and merchant payment processing.
Community Banking also purchases sales finance contracts from retail merchants throughout the United States and directly from auto dealers in Puerto Rico. Consumer and business deposit products include checking accounts, savings deposits, market rate accounts, Individual Retirement Accounts, time deposits and debit cards. Community Banking serves customers through a complete range of channels, including traditional banking stores, in-store banking centers, business centers, automated teller machines (ATMs), online and mobile banking, and Wells Fargo Customer Connection, a 24-hours a day, seven days a week telephone service.
Wholesale Banking
Wholesale Banking provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States with annual sales generally in excess of $20 million and to financial institutions globally. Products and businesses include commercial banking, investment banking and capital markets, securities investment, government and institutional banking, corporate banking, commercial real estate, treasury management, capital finance, international, insurance, real estate capital markets, commercial mortgage servicing, corporate trust, equipment finance, asset backed finance, and asset management. Wholesale Banking provides a complete line of commercial, corporate, capital markets, cash management and real estate banking products and services. These include traditional commercial loans and lines of credit, letters of credit, asset-based lending, equipment leasing, international trade facilities, trade financing, collection services, foreign exchange services, treasury management, investment management, institutional fixed-income sales, interest rate, commodity and equity risk management, online/electronic products, such as the Commercial Electronic Office (CEO) portal, insurance, corporate trust fiduciary and agency services, and investment banking services.
Wholesale Banking manages customer investments through institutional separate accounts and mutual funds, including the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds and Wells Capital Management. Wholesale Banking also supports the commercial real estate (CRE) market with products and services such as construction loans for commercial and residential development, land acquisition and development loans, secured and unsecured lines of credit, interim financing arrangements for completed structures, rehabilitation loans, affordable housing loans and letters of credit, permanent loans for securitization, CRE loan servicing and real estate and mortgage brokerage services
Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement
Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement provides a range of financial advisory services to clients using a planning approach to meet each client’s needs. Wealth Management provides high-net-worth clients with a range of wealth management solutions, including financial planning, private banking, credit, investment management and trust. Family Wealth meets the needs of ultra high-net-worth customers. Brokerage serves customers’ advisory, brokerage and financial needs. Retirement provides institutional retirement and trust services (including 401(k) and pension plan record keeping) for businesses, retail retirement solutions for individuals, and reinsurance services for the life insurance industry.
The integration of Norwest and Wells Fargo proceeded much more smoothly than the combination of Wells Fargo and First Interstate. A key reason was that the process was allowed to progress at a much slower and more manageable pace than that of the earlier merger. The plan allowed for two to three years to complete the integration, while the cost-cutting goal was a more modest $650 million in annual savings within three years. Rather than the mass layoffs that were typical of many mergers, Wells Fargo announced a workforce reduction of only 4,000 to 5,000 employees over a two-year period.
Continuing the Norwest tradition of making numerous smaller acquisitions each year, Wells Fargo acquired 13 companies during 1999 with total assets of $2.4 billion. The largest of these was the February purchase of Brownsville, Texas-based Mercantile Financial Enterprises, Inc., which had $779 million in assets. The acquisition pace picked up in 2000 with Wells Fargo expanding its retail banking into two more states: Michigan, through the buyout of Michigan Financial Corporation ($975 million in assets), and Alaska, through the purchase of National Bancorp of Alaska Inc. ($3 billion in assets). Wells Fargo also acquired First Commerce Bancshares, Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska, which had $2.9 billion in assets, and a Seattle-based regional brokerage firm, Ragen MacKenzie Group Incorporated. In October 2000 Wells Fargo made its largest deal since the Norwest-Wells Fargo merger when it paid nearly $3 billion in stock for First Security Corporation, a $23 billion bank holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and operating in seven western states. Wells Fargo thereby became the largest banking franchise in terms of deposits in New Mexico, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah; as well as the largest banking franchise in the West overall.
Following completion of the First Security acquisition, Wells Fargo had total assets of $263 billion. Its strategy echoed that of the old Norwest: making selective acquisitions and pursuing cross-selling of an ever-wider array of credit and investment products to its vast customer base. Under Kovacevich's leadership, Wells Fargo was posting smart growth in revenues and profits and was the envy of the banking industry for the smooth way in which it had completed the Norwest-Wells Fargo merger as well as its knack for integrating smaller banks. Although there was speculation that the next 'stage' for Wells Fargo might involve a major merger with an eastern bank that would create a nationwide retail bank or a merger that would bring the bank one of the two other things it did not have--a global presence and a large investment banking arm--Kovacevich seemed content with the concentration on western U.S. banking and the broader finance and mortgage operations. Wells Fargo was more profitable than most of the 'megabanks' that had formed in the 1990s, with the reason perhaps lying in its more modest ambitions.
Principal Subsidiaries: Norwest Bank Minnesota, N.A.; Norwest Limited, L.L.C.; Norwest Venture Partners VI, LP; WFC Holdings Corporation; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Principal Competitors: Bank One Corporation; Bank of America Corporation; Citigroup Inc.; Fifth Third Bancorp; Firstar Corporation; General Electric Capital Corporation; Golden State Bancorp Inc.; Golden West Financial Corporation; Household International, Inc.; J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; KeyCorp; National City Corporation; The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; Sanwa Bank California; The Sumitomo Bank, Limited; U.S. Bancorp; UnionBanCal Corporation; Washington Mutual, Inc.; Zions Bancorporation.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.36
Market Cap (Mil.): $147,724.50
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 5,289.10
Annual Dividend: 0.48
Yield (%): 1.72
FINANCIALS
WFC Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 11.52 17.62 26.13
EPS (TTM): 45.31 -- --
ROI: -- 0.00 4.83
ROE: 11.23 4.32 9.92
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1968 as Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; 1983 as Norwest Corporation
Employees: 114,000
Total Assets: $263 billion (2000)
Stock Exchanges: New York Chicago
Ticker Symbol: WFC
NAIC: 522110 Commercial Banking; 522210 Credit Card Issuing; 522220 Sales Financing; 522291 Consumer Lending; 522292 Real Estate Credit; 522298 All Other Nondepository Credit Intermediation; 523110 Investment Banking and Securities Dealing; 523120 Securities Brokerage; 523920 Portfolio Management; 523991 Trust, Fiduciary, and Custody Activities; 524210 Insurance Agencies and Brokerages; 551111 Offices of Bank Holding Companies
Key Dates:
1852: Henry Wells and William G. Fargo form Wells, Fargo & Company to provide express and banking services to California.
1860: Wells Fargo gains control of Overland Mail Company, leading to operation of the western portion of the Pony Express.
1866: 'Grand consolidation' unites Wells Fargo, Holladay, and Overland Mail stage lines under the Wells Fargo name.
1904: A.P. Giannini creates the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.
1905: Wells Fargo separates its banking and express operations; Wells Fargo's bank is merged with the Nevada National Bank to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.
1923: Wells Fargo Nevada merges with the Union Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.
1928: Giannini forms Transamerica Corporation as a holding company for his banking and other interests.
1929: Northwest Bancorporation, or Banco, is formed as a banking association.
1954: Wells shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
1957: Transamerica spins off its banking operations, including 23 banks in 11 western states, as Firstamerica Corporation.
1960: Wells Fargo merges with American Trust Company to form the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company.
1961: Firstamerica changes its name to Western Bancorporation.
1962: Wells again shortens its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
1968: Wells converts to a federal banking charter, becoming Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
1969: Wells Fargo & Company holding company is formed, with Wells Fargo Bank as its main subsidiary.
1981: Western Bancorporation changes its name to First Interstate Bancorp.
1982: Banco acquires consumer finance firm Dial Corporation, which is renamed Norwest Financial Service the following year.
1983: Banco is renamed Norwest Corporation.
1986: Wells Fargo acquires Crocker National Corporation.
1988: Wells Fargo acquires Barclays Bank of California.
1995: Wells Fargo becomes the first major financial services firm to offer Internet banking.
1996: Wells Fargo acquires First Interstate for $11.3 billion.
1998: Norwest acquires Wells Fargo for $31.7 billion and adopts the Wells Fargo name.
2000: Wells Fargo acquires First Security Corporation.
Name Age Since Current Position
John Stumpf 57 2010 Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Sloan 50 2011 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Executive Vice President
Avid Modjtabai 49 2007 Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Michael Loughlin 55 2010 Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer
James Strother 59 2004 Executive Vice President, General Counsel
Richard Levy 53 2007 Executive Vice President, Controller
Mark Oman 56 2009 Senior Executive Vice President - Home and Consumer Finance
Patricia Callahan 57 2011 Senior Executive Vice President
David Hoyt 55 2005 Senior Executive Vice President - Wholesale Banking
Carrie Tolstedt 51 2007 Senior Executive Vice President - Community Banking
Kevin Rhein 57 2009 Executive Vice President - Card Services and Consumer Lending
David Carroll 53 2009 Senior Executive Vice President - Wealth Management, Brokerage and Retirement Services
Philip Quigley 68 2009 Lead Independent Director
Richard McCormick 70 1983 Independent Director
Cynthia Milligan 64 1992 Independent Director
Susan Engel 64 1998 Independent Director
Judith Runstad 66 1998 Independent Director
Susan Swenson 63 1994 Independent Director
Enrique Hernandez 55 2003 Independent Director
Stephen Sanger 65 2003 Independent Director
Llyod Dean 60 2005 Independent Director
Nicholas Moore 69 2006 Independent Director
John Chen 55 2006 Independent Director
John Baker 62 2009 Independent Director
Donald James 62 2009 Independent Director
Mackey McDonald 64 2009 Independent Director
Address:
420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94163
U.S.A.