SWOT ANALYSIS OF WACHOVIA[/b]
Wachovia, a Wells Fargo company, is a a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States based on total assets. The purchase of Wachovia Corp by Wells Fargo and Company was completed on December 31, 2008. Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia after a government-forced sale to avoid a failure of Wachovia.
Starting in 2009, the Wachovia brand is being absorbed into the Wells Fargo brand in a process that is initially estimated to last three years. In July 2009, Wachovia Securities became Wells Fargo Advisors. The merger of Wells Fargo and Wachovia bank charters was completed on March 20, 2010.
As an independent company, Wachovia provided a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services (many of these business areas have converted, or are in the process of converting, to management and branding under Wells Fargo). At its height, it was one of the largest providers of financial services in the United States, operating financial centers in 21 states and Washington, D.C., with locations from Connecticut to Florida and west to California. Wachovia provides global services through more than 40 offices around the world.
It served retail brokerage clients under the name Wachovia Securities nationwide as well as in six Latin American countries, and investment banking clients in selected industries nationwide. In 2009, Wachovia Securities was the first Wachovia business to be converted to the Wells Fargo brand, when the business became Wells Fargo Advisors. Wachovia also operated Calibre, its wealth management services to ultra-high net worth families with net worth exceeding $25 million. In 2010, Calibre was renamed Wells Fargo Family Wealth.
The company's corporate and institutional capital markets and investment banking groups operated under the Wachovia Securities brand, while its asset management group operated under the Evergreen Investments brand until 2010, when the Evergreen fund family merged with Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, and institutional and high net worth products merged with Wells Capital Management and its affiliates.
Wachovia's private equity arm operated as Wachovia Capital Partners. Additionally, the asset-based lending group operated as Wachovia Capital Finance
SWOT ANALYSIS OF WACHOVIA[/b]
Strengths [/b]
- Large asset pool
- Strong general banking segment
- Leading market position
- Strong customer service
Weaknesses [/b]
- Narrowly focused geographical locations
- Exposure to subprime mortgage market
Opportunities [/b]
- Integration, European Credit Management (majority stake only)
- Expansion of credit card business
- Wealth management
- Expansion outside of the US
Threats [/b]
- Weak mortgage market in the US
- Economic slowdown in the US
- Further industry consolidation
- Increased competition from European banks