It was only 11 years ago when Wachovia was close to bankruptcy and Wells Fargo battled with Citi and won the Wachovia buyout. Granted what happened to Wachovia 11 years ago are not the same circumstances that Wells Fargo is going through. IMO, there is about 25% chance that some other Bank/Brokerage takes over Wells just as Wells did with Wachovia in 2009. What do you guys think, who would be the top players to take over Wells?
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When I joined in 1999 customer service was already pushing 8 is great. Everyone was complaining about how it was no longer WF, it was Norwest. They were pushing the phone banks to cross sell customers at every opportunity.
It was a long time coming and happened under Norwest's leadership.
The sales scandal was 100% Wells Fargo and was the result of the poorly managed and supervised d—s “8 is great”. The epicenter of that nightmare was California. Remember, Wells staffing levels were based on those goals and everyone being pushed to meet with a banker.
Wachovia made the mistake of acquiring GW after a failure to acquire MBNA’s credit card business. That led to a mortgage portfolio that was crushed by the downfall of real estate in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Wachovia was doomed when they brought in the temporary CEO from Goldman Sachs. When they show up, hang on because they will sell out to get their big bonus.
This massive cleansing will result in customers leaving as bankers who get cut or who quit take the business to other banks. Money is generic, relationships people have with people are not and customers follow relationships.
I admit it, I hate John Stumpf.
And I am not ashamed to say it!
Used to like it here, now I dread coming to work.
Dread the work and hate John Stumpf, that's the point I'm making.
JPM already took us over. The Advance Away Team is already in charge and more come aboard every day. We will either merge with JPM or Team JP Morgan West will steer us onto a reef where the waves (investors and regulators and customers) will break us up and we sink.
We have already stopped certain functions and there are many rumors about trimming lots of big blubbery whale fat.
I heard team members are already walking the plank off the WH ship.
Take solace that a bunch of us will be cannon balled off this once great wooden ship together and can create a giant Ex Wells Fargo Pirate therapy group and class action lawsuit.
A lot of people seem to have misunderstandings about why the company got to where it is.
1998 Norwest "merged" with Wells Fargo. In reality, Norwest was a mortgage company that wanted to expand, WF had been severely weakened by its acquisition of First Interstate Bank, but was becoming an online powerhouse of banking. They had been online for years, starting a decade earlier with Prodigy. Norwest basically bought WF to expand and gain their online presence.
2008 Wachovia is near bankruptcy and the new WF (essentially Norwest with WF branding) acquires them purely for the goal of going international. WF was behind the curve in going international and knew it. That's why they were fighting so hard to beat Citi to the purchase.
I know a bunch of former Wachovia felt like they were taken over, but having been on the WF side it also felt like Wachovia took over.
You had Norwest, who operated on a purely sales-oriented playbook, who grew massively over 2 decades on acquisitions alone. Everyone knew it was the only way we were growing deposits. The bank's model was broken for more than a decade prior to the scandals happening.
Chainsaw is here to clean up the mess and get us operating like a bank is supposed to operate. For better, or for worse. His job is exactly what he's doing, make us like the other banks that we're supposed to be similar to.
You want to hate on someone hate Richard Kovacevich and John Stumpf. Those two id–ts are the ones who made a fortune by destroying the business. Chainsaw is a byproduct of their negligence, nothing else.
WFC earnings power is unrivaled (exception JPM). Just 4 years ago, WFC was raking in net profit and revenue and has a efficiency ratio 55-59. Make no mistake, that will happen again. Wfc Capital is solid. They’re going to be around for the test of time.
Not sure if folks on this site all know what defines a legit bankruptcy. WF is no where near bankruptcy...
Wachovia definitely did not always have the better applications. Default and Home Equity related software was a joke, being run basically by MS Access databases. WFC was way ahead of them here.... Also the practices of folks in the LOB and technology in those acquired groups were seriously questionable when it came to auditing. Not necessarily saying WFC was any better when it comes to ethics/practices...
Wachovia made a bad deal but you seem to be "misremembering" that all the scandals were on the Wells side. During the conversion Wachovia had the better applications but they insisted on using the WF applications for the most part which were not capable to handle the influx of work - primarily in Wholesale. So then we were merged but on systems that were pathetically backwards. So you combine the obnoxious obsession with Retail cross sell, add 'run it like you own it" mentality with horrible applications and that's why we are where we are.
Do not blame Wachovia.
I believe we are too big for anyone to buy and/or to fail.
Not going to happen. Wells is rising from all its issues to be a powerful bank. I invested twenty years of my life in this company. Not giving up hope. No way, no way will I do that.
To me, there’s two issues here - first is the corruption surrounding the false accounts created and the entire quota system placed on banking centers. The second is the fact banks need to modernize their approach to banking to meet modern and future customers. Needless to say, WF finally drank from the fountain of “reality” and realized the hole they dug themselves in. IMO, reducing the number of branch locations, focusing in on mobile services and aligning corporate goals towards a modern bank is where WF is heading. I sense both corporate actuaries and banking personnel will be hit since computers can do their jobs ... and quite honestly, I always hated the WF selling motions where they approach you with “solutions”, it always bugged me for some reason.
Yes WF will need to be broken up and sold into parts. I use to work in their risk area and their living will was to sell off all divisions and be a community bank again.
You are a joke. The sky is not falling. Not even close. Get a grip!