Wells Fargo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wells Fargo & Company

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN US9497461015
founding 1852
Seat San Francisco , United States
management Elizabeth A. Duke (Chairwoman)
Charles W. Scharf ( CEO )
Number of employees 259,800
sales $ 85.1 billion (2019)
Branch Universal bank
Website www.wellsfargo.com
As of December 31, 2019

Wells Fargo is a San Francisco -based financial services company with consumer finance subsidiaries operating in Canada , the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Caribbean . The company is listed in the S&P 500 share index. Measured by market capitalization , it was the second most valuable bank in the world after JP Morgan Chase in February 2017 at $ 274 billion . The largest shareholders in 2018 were Berkshire Hathaway (9.80%), The Vanguard Group (6.48%) and BlackRock (5.90%).

The bank is one of the 30 major banks that the Financial Stability Board (FSB) as "systemically important financial institution" ( systemically important financial institution ) were classified. It is therefore subject to special monitoring and higher requirements for the endowment with equity .

Company history

Wells Fargo US Mail service

The company's roots go back to 1852. It was then that Henry Wells and William Fargo , who were also co-founders of American Express , founded the Wells Fargo Company in the western United States to provide transportation and (later) financial services. In particular, the company's stagecoaches were part of the streetscape in the so-called Wild West .

Today's company is the result of the 1998 takeover of the Californian company Wells Fargo & Company by the Minneapolis- based Norwest Corporation . Although the acquired company mostly adopts the name of the acquirer, Norwest decided instead to use its name in favor of the acquired Wells Fargo , as the nearly 150-year history of the name Wells Fargo and its stagecoach stories from the Wild West seemed attractive.

At the end of 2008, Wells Fargo took over its US competitor Wachovia .

Financial crisis

The financial crisis also affected Wells Fargo. On October 28, 2008, the bank received $ 25 billion from the US government.

Wells Fargo announced on December 15, 2009 that it would repay state aid received in the wake of the financial crisis. The 25 billion US dollars in taxpayers' money from the American government's bank rescue plan should be paid off as quickly as possible. A capital increase of 10.4 billion US dollars is planned for financing .

In September 2011, the rating agency Moody's downgraded the creditworthiness of Wells Fargo 's long-term loans by one notch from "A1" to "A2". It is less likely that the US government will step in to save a troubled big bank from a crisis.

The bank was able to recover over the next few years. In the 2016 financial year, the profit was 24 billion US dollars, making it one of the most profitable banks in the world again.

Because of the systematic exploitation of customers, the Federal Reserve Wells banned Fargo in early 2018 from showing total assets above 1.95 trillion US dollars. The Iowa Department of Justice announced in late 2018 that the company had reached a settlement with 50 states . Accordingly, $ 575 million should be paid to settle the case.

Business figures

Business and employee development (the fiscal year ends on June 30th)
year Total assets
in US $ million
Sales
in US $ million
Balance sheet profit
in million US $
Price per share
in US $
Employees
2005 481.741 40,407 7,671 21.10
2006 481.996 47,979 8,420 24.51
2007 575,442 53,723 8,057 25.77
2008 1,309,639 51,632 2,369 22.65
2009 1,243,646 98,636 7,990 18.83
2010 1,258,128 93,249 11,632 22.83
2011 1,313,867 87,597 15,025 22.96
2012 1,422,968 91,247 17,999 27.57
2013 1,523,502 88,069 20,889 34.69 264,900
2014 1,687,155 88,372 21,821 44.68 264,500
2015 1,787,632 90.033 21,470 49.92 264,700
2016 1,930,115 94.176 20,373 45.95 269.100
2017 1,951,757 97,741 20,554 53.16 263,000

Trivia

Director Frank Lloyd set a monument for the company in 1937 by sketching the rise of the transport company in his Western Frisco Express (original title: Wells Fargo) and using the fictional character Ramsay MacCay (played by Joel McCrea ) to depict its development in the context of American history .

An employee of the historical shipping service plays a role in the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini (premiered in 1910). The transport company is also in the song The Wells Fargo Wagon from the musical The Music Man by Meredith Willson mentioned (premiered in 1957).

The American TV series Tales of Wells Fargo was broadcast on NBC from 1957 to 1962. It ran from 1965 under the title Wells Fargo in some regional programs of the ARD .

The company plays an important role in the Lucky Luke band The Stagecoach .

Web links

Commons : Wells Fargo  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Annual Report 2019 (PDF), accessed on May 19, 2020
  2. ^ A b Wells Fargo on the Forbes Global 2000 List . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed November 16, 2017]).
  3. Wells Fargo replaces Chinese ICBC as largest bank in the world WSJ Online, accessed July 24, 2013
  4. ^ Policy Measures to Address Systemically Important Financial Institutions. In: Financial Stability Board (FSB) of November 4, 2011 (PDF)
  5. Update of the group of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) (PDF) from November 1, 2012
  6. Wells Fargo, Wachovia Agree to Merge ( memento of December 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) - press release of October 3, 2008
  7. ^ Wells Fargo settles debts
  8. ↑ Unprecedented intervention: Wells Fargo must not continue to grow at srf.ch , February 3, 2018, accessed on December 29, 2018.
  9. With 50 US states - Wells Fargo concludes a multi-million dollar settlement at srf.ch, December 29, 2018, also accessed.
  10. ^ Wells Fargo Financial Statements 2005-2018 | WFC. Retrieved October 22, 2018 .
  11. Company profile . Retrieved October 22, 2018 .