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’Merger savings boost Wells’ profit
Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest US bank by assets, on Wednesday posted record Q3 profits as revenues outstripped loan losses, and savings from its merger with East coast rival Wachovia began to materialise.
Peeking into Wells Fargo’s pandora’s box of commercial real estate
This is our last recorded call. Wells Fargo has always been committed to providing clear, complete, and transparent communication about the company’s results to all of its stakeholders. As we enter the second year of the merger with Wachovia,
US commercial real estate datapoint du jour, Hawaiian hotels edition
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal published a story on the downturn facing the Hawaiian resort industry. It began with this sobering stat:
For the hotel industry in the continental U.S., this downturn is the worst since the Great Depression.
That Goldman Sachs (big) bank upgrade
It might seem counter intuitive, but according to Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo is now the bank to own.
The Banking Holding Co. (née Investment Bank) upgraded the biggest US banks, including Wells, on Monday citing:
Wells Fargo’s Kovacevich to exit
Dick Kovacevich will step down as chairman of Wells Fargo at the end of this year, handing over to his successor as chief executive, John Stumpf. Kovacevich’s departure, announced on Tuesday, signals that the Wells Fargo board is satisfied with progress on the integration of Wachovia,
A new, old chairman for Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo’s chairman Richard Kovacevich intends to retire at the end of the year, and will be replaced by John Stumpf, current chief executive, the bank said on Tuesday.
Stumpf succeeded Kovacevich as chief executive in 2007.
The pandora’s box of Wells Fargo and commercial real estate
As part of FT Alphaville’s ongoing reporting on commercial real estate, and because we’re always up for a challenge, we posed a series of questions to Wells Fargo on the topic.
Wells, primarily through its acquisition of Wachovia,
Is all well at Wells Fargo?
On September 1, a rumour spread rapidly around the City of London and Wall Street: “Wells Fargo is in trouble.”
Wells’ shares duly declined as much 4.8 per cent, the bank’s biggest slide in two weeks and a steeper fall than the wider US market.
Wells Fargo urges US to boost mortgage market
The US government should help revive the moribund market for big mortgages by getting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy large home loans from banks, the chief executive of the lender Wells Fargo urged in an interview with the FT on Tuesday.
Wells Fargo leads slump in financials
Wells Fargo led US financial shares in their biggest fall since late June on Tuesday amid renewed concerns about bank earnings, reports the FT. Shares in the San Francisco-based bank dropped 4.8% amid speculation that it might be preparing a share sale to raise capital.
Wachovia agrees ARS buy-back
Pennsylvania reached an agreement with Wells Fargo’s Wachovia unit to offer to buy back $324.6m of auction rate securities from residents in the wake of the collapse of the ARS market in early 2008, reports the WSJ.
US banks warn on commercial property
Two of America’s biggest banks, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, on Wednesday threw into sharp relief the mounting woes of the US commercial property market when they reported large losses and surging bad loans.
Morgan Stanley reports Q2 loss of $159m, EPS -$1.37
Oh poor Morgan Stanley. It loos like it took a big hit on own credit (again) as well as the repurchasing of its Tarp capital.
From the release:
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) today reported a loss from continuing operations applicable to Morgan Stanley for the second quarter ended June 30,
US in talks to rescue CIT
The crisis at CIT, one of the largest US middle-market lenders, worsened on Monday with the company talking to regulators about ways to stave off failure while its credit ratings were cut deeper into junk territory A failure at CIT could result in losses for Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo,
S&P takes a stick to banks, investors fear more beatings to come
Standard & Poor’s is on a roll this week. First it issued a European “report card” on Tuesday warning of “vanishing prospects for a quick rebound” for banks in the eurozone, pointing to mounting bad debts on corporate and consumer lending and estimating that credit losses this year among the largest 50 European banks will nearly double from last year’s €128bn ($177bn).
US banks slide on S&P ratings cuts
US lenders slid on Wednesday after S&P reduced its credit ratings on 18 banks, including Wells Fargo, Capital One and KeyCorp, citing tighter regulation and increased market volatility, reports Bloomberg.
Wells Fargo and the ‘mud people’
The issue of whether minorities in the US were targeted and subsequently exploited by mortgage lenders has long been a contentious one.
A 2007 story in the San Diego Tribune noted:
African-Americans and Latinos are much more likely to be sold high-cost home loans than white households in San Diego and around the nation,
US banks swamped by ‘refi’ fever
The rush of US homeowners to refinance mortgages at lower rates is creating a boom in the home lending business, prompting banks including Bank of America and Wells Fargo to hire thousands of new employees for extra shifts to process mountains of paper.
Stress tests unleash fee bonanza
The completion of US banking “stress tests” has unleashed a fee bonanza for Wall Street, with financial institutions set to earn more than $500m within weeks as many of the 19 lenders involved in the tests tap the market to fill the capital holes uncovered by regulators or repay funds from the Tarp scheme.
Wells Fargo says earnings to fill deficit
Wells Fargo, deemed to need $13.7bn of capital by the US government’s stress test last week, has the earning power to fill its capital deficit by November and quickly apply to repay $25bn of government funds,
Stress test tension and the question of converting capital
One part of the stress test seems to be a little problematic, for some. While the results revealed a $185bn shortfall in capital amongst the 19 biggest American banks, the SCAP will only need to replenish them with $75bn.
Bill Miller says buy banks
Fallen star Bill Miller, of Legg Mason, is back — with stock tips. Via Bloomberg:
“Financials have the biggest potential to outperform” other stocks because of how far they’ve fallen in the worst bear market since the Great Depression,
Wells Fargo needs $15bn, Bloomberg says
Hot on the heels of a vague CNBC report that stress test results showed Wells Fargo would need “more capital” comes this Bloomberg story :
Wells Fargo & Co., the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, requires about $15 billion in new capital as a result of regulators’ stress test on the lender,
US banks surge on test hopes
US bank shares surged on Monday as investors bet that some of the biggest banks will have to raise less capital than feared after this week’s release of the government’s “stress test” results for 19 banks.
Wells Fargo needs to raise more capital, CNBC says
CNBC reports:
Regulators told Wells Fargo to shore up its finances after government “stress tests” showed the bank would have trouble surviving a deeper recession.
Wells Fargo is one of several banks that regulators will force to hold larger buffers to protect them against possible future losses,
Wells net jumps on Wachovia buy
Wells Fargo’s net income jumped 52% in the first quarter due mainly to its acquisition last year of regional lender Wachovia and a rise in mortgage refinancings, reports the WSJ. Wells’ latest results were slightly higher than preliminary results issued two weeks ago,
CDS report: Budget, what budget?
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
From the media reaction in the UK, one could be forgiven for thinking that the annual government budget is an event of global proportions. While its effect on UK businesses and consumers is indeed important – especially this year – its impact on the rest of the world is relatively insignificant.
Goldman creates orphans and other conspiracies
One of the biggest internet financial furores this week has been over Goldman’s ‘orphan month’ – December 2008.
The bank changed its 2009 year-end to December, instead of using a fiscal year through March,
On Wells Fargo and banks’ well-being
The blogosphere – and analysts – are in varying states of agitation over Wells Fargo’s pre-announcement of its quarterly results on Thursday last week.
The bank said it would post $3bn in first-quarter profits when it releases Q1 results next month — more than double what analysts were expecting.
Wells Fargo rallies after early, positive earnings guidance
Wells Fargo on Thursday boosted US markets after it said it expected record first quarter earnings of $3bn, or $0.55 per common share after preferred dividends. Consensus forecasts had been for first-quarter earnings of around 23 cents per share.