Wells Fargo & Co
| Type | Public (NYSE: WFC) |
|---|---|
| Founded | New York, New York, USA (March 18, 1852) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Key people | Dick Kovacevich, Chairman John Stumpf, President and CEO |
| Products | Retail Banking Insurance Payday advance Mortgages Consumer Finance Corporate and Investment Banking |
| Revenue | ▲US $39.390 billion (2007) |
| Net income | ▲$8.057 billion USD (2007) [1] |
| Total assets | US$ 1.42 trillion (2008)[2] |
| Employees | 167,500 (2008)[3] |
| Website | www.wellsfargo.com |
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States with operations around the world. Wells Fargo is the 4th largest bank in the US by assets and the largest bank by market cap.[4] It is the only bank in the United States to be rated AAA by S&P.[5]
Wells Fargo was named as “The World’s Safest US Bank” based on long-term foreign currency ratings from Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s and the long-term bank deposit ratings from Moody’s Investors Service for the year 2007.[6]
The current Wells Fargo is a result of a 1998 merger between Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation and the original Wells Fargo.[7] Although Norwest was the nominal survivor, the new company kept the Wells Fargo name to capitalize on the long history of the nationally-recognized Wells Fargo name and its trademark stagecoach (the company’s slogan, “The Next Stage,” is a nod to the company’s wagons-west motif). After the acquisition, the parent company moved its headquarters to San Francisco.
As of 2008, Wells Fargo has 5,983 retail branches,[3] 3,327 banking branches,[3] 160,900 employees[3] and over 23 million customers.
On October 3, 2008, Wells Fargo announced it had agreed to acquire Wachovia for $15.1 billion in stock. Previously, Wachovia had announced talks with Citigroup on September 29 to sell off its core banking business for $2.2 billion, retaining Wachovia Securities and other brokerage services, in a deal brokered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Wachovia preferred the Wells Fargo deal as it keeps the banking and brokerage businesses together, it provides shareholders with a better deal, and the deal does not require assistance from the Federal government as the Citigroup deal would have. Citigroup had demanded that Wachovia and Wells Fargo cease discussions, citing an exclusivity agreement between Citigroup and Wachovia.[8] However, on Oct 9, 2008, Citigroup announced that they would no longer try to block the merger and Wells Fargo bought all of Wachovia.[9] Citigroup is still exploring their options and has indicated that they will seek damages from the exclusivity violation.
