Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

Corporate Trust is next. Patty Sutter knows.

I dont really know if selling asset management was "smart"- what bank does not want to have a division to manage assets? I predict they will build it back up- I dont see this as long term.

@dfl+19ElABE6

Charlie didn’t run us into the ground... he wasn’t here for the last 15 years. Fortunately, everything that Charlie does actually is good for the employees, especially the fact that Wells will be able to keep more of us than we could have without his leadership.

all of them! this place is money pit

It should be Auto.

It's an old, stodgy LOB with a ever-shrinking portfolio. Auto's customers are either used car buyers and/or have bad credit. WF simply can't compete with manufacturer financing for regular buyers.

When people buy cars, 9 times out of 10 the dealership tells the customer who's financing the deal. The customer rarely gives a rat's who the lender is as long as the terms are favorable.

WF Auto keeps lying to itself and others that dealership customers are walking in with Wells Fargo actively on their mind.

How cringe-worthy that this is the message being put out there, and even worse that a few people actually believe it.

Isn't the word on the street that Corporate Trust is the next one to be sold?

Railroad car leasing business. Purchased by a former CEO of First Union from a college buddy. WF owns more rail cars than any company in the USA. Not exactly a core business. WF rebranded it WF Rail a few years ago. Wachovia never rebranded the business. It was First Union Rail when WF bought Wachovia.

Email just went out 5 minutes ago as part of Team Link, Sale of Wells Fargo Asset Management Announced..

There’s been mumblings that Abbott Downing will be one to go in the next 18 months. For those unfamiliar, Abbott Downing is a boutique ultra high net worth business within WIM that caters to families with a minimum of $50 million in liquid investable assets. Because the minimum is just liquid, and not counting locked up equity in companies or ownership in private companies, the net worth of the clients is more along the lines of $80-90 million. A few years back the business had $50 billion in AUM, now its down to $47 billion.

Just like Wells was not a major player in asset management, it also really isn’t a major player in the ultra high net worth space. Larger players like Goldman, AllianceBernstein, JPMorgan, and some PE firms, etc would pay a good price for this. There also aren’t too many synergies with the rest of WIM as it’s really a boutique whereas WFA caters to the rich guy next door with $500k-$2 million in assets.

Also of noteworthy, is that the former head of Abbott Downing who reported directly to B S...ers and who was two levels beneath the CEO got realigned and moved to WFAM where he is now 4 below the CEO I believe. There’s also been a couple other moves from there.

I’ve noticed that some of the beloved lifers of wells who are talented but fell in bad luck, often times get “saved” and hired by a buddy in another line of business where their skills align. Imagine heading an entire business, and then willingly moving to another business where you are essentially demoted? Not by chance.

The mortgage business has always been cyclical. If this is true, I would take it to mean that WF expects interest rates to rise.

When rates are low, people buy homes and refinance their loans, and lenders hire. When rates go up, the mortgage business slows down and people get laid off.

Wells will not be exiting the mortgage business. They don’t make billions every quarter on checking account overdraft fees.

Word behind the scenes is that people in the mortgage division are being told they should start looking for jobs.

Charlie is not here for the employees. He is here for the stockholders. And himself. That’s it.

Wells fargo is not a significant player in the asset management space. To become a player, we would have to invest significantly in that business. Charlie is playing it right in this case by selling it. Wells has market leading positions in retail banking, commercial banking, and can grow CIB and invest there vs. investing in asset mgmt, student loans, auto loans, etc. These businesses while cross sell potential are largely transactional and we are not big players!

Can't be Auto as this is an income generating unit. Maybe IT, as this is a big operational expense. We can outsource our entire IT, fixed fee it, and may the lowest servicing bidder win.

I can’t even remember when I took out a car loan from a bank because I either bought a used clunker with cash or got a loan through the manufacturer. If I had to bet, it would also be auto.

people keep mentioned auto, are they doing so because it would 'make sense' or because they have real information that that group is up for sale?

Auto Lending

Auto

I don't know, but he's not operating in a vacuum. I'm sure the board signs off on every 'sell a business' proposal.

Charlie is on the right track.

Needs to keep cutting the deadweight and non-core units to get us lean.

Everything Charlie does is not good for the employees, unfortunately.