Question

can you describe wells fargo business and the products and services offered and the drivers of the companys revenues and expenses ?

Answer 1

Wells Fargo delineates three different business segments when reporting results: Community Banking; Wholesale Banking; and Wealth, Brokerage and Retirement.

Community banking: The Community Banking segment includes Regional Banking, Diversified Products, and Consumer Deposits groups, as well as Wells Fargo Customer Connection (formerly Wells Fargo Phone Bank, Wachovia Direct Access, the National Business Banking Center, and Credit Card Customer Service). Wells Fargo also has around 2,000 stand-alone mortgage branches throughout the country. There are mini-branches located inside of other buildings, which are almost exclusively grocery stores, that usually contain ATMs, basic teller services, and, space permitting, an office for private meetings with customers. In March 2017, Wells Fargo announced a plan to offer smartphone-based transactions with mobile wallets including Wells Fargo Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay.

Consumer lending: As of Q3 2011, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage was the largest retail mortgage lender in the United States, originating one out of every four home loans. Wells Fargo services US$1.8 trillion in home mortgages, the second largest servicing portfolio in the US. It was reported in 2012 Wells Fargo reached 30% market share for US mortgages, however, the then-CEO John Stumpf had said the numbers were misleading because about half of that share represented the aggregation of smaller loans that were then sold on the secondary market. In 2013, its share was closer to 22%; of which eight percentage points was aggregation.

Wells Fargo private student loans: Wells Fargo private student loans are available to students to pay for college expenses, such as tuition, books, computers, or housing. Loans are available for undergraduate, career and community colleges, graduate school, law school and medical school. Wells Fargo also provides private student loan consolidation and student loans for parents.

Equipment lending: Wells Fargo has various divisions that finance and lease equipment to different types of companies. One venture is Wells Fargo Rail, which in 2015 agreed to the purchase of GE Capital Rail Services and merged in with First Union Rail. In late 2015, it was announced that Wells Fargo would buy three GE units focused on business loans equipment financing.

Wells Fargo offers investment products through its subsidiaries, Wells Fargo Investments, LLC and Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, as well as through national broker/dealer firms. The company also serves high-net-worth individuals through its private bank and family wealth group.

Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) is the trade name for the mutual fund division of Wells Fargo & Co. Mutual funds are offered under the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds brand name.

Wells Fargo Securities (WFS) is the investment banking division of Wells Fargo & Co. The size and financial performance of this group is not disclosed publicly, but analysts believe the investment banking group houses approximately 4,500 employees and generates between US$3 and US$4 billion per year in investment banking revenue.