CAs Wells Fargo now the nation's most valuable bank (Los Angeles: foreclosures, movers)

[18Montclair]

Our state govt is inept and embarrassing, but darnit if CA doesnt have some incredibly massive and well run corporations.

By Nathaniel Popper, Los Angeles Times March 18, 2012


If you want to do business with the biggest bank in the Western world, don't get on a plane to New York or London. The new place to go is sunny California.

Wells Fargo & Co., with its headquarters in downtown San Francisco, has shot ahead of the East Coast institutions that have long been the behemoths of the financial industry, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.

Although Wells Fargo still has fewer bank deposits than its closest competitor, its total stock market value is now about $178 billion — that's about $70 billion more than Citigroup and about $9 billion more than JPMorgan. It has even overtaken the largest bank in Europe, London's HSBC.

This newly assumed title is not just a quirk of the stock markets. It symbolizes an important shift that has taken place over the last year: Investors and bankers have increasingly lost faith in the old Wall Street model that helped New York consolidate its status as the financial capital of the world...


Wells Fargo is now the nation's biggest bank by market value - latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/media/graphic/2012-03/68872395.jpg (broken link)


Also, according to the article, Wells Fargo surpassed BofA as the largest bank in CA by deposits.

[Curmudgeon]

And I remember way back when it was a great bank that cared about its customers and bent over backward to serve them.

[mayorhaggar]

All those bailouts and illegal foreclosures surely help their bottom line.

[jeffredo]

I'm glad that when Norwest of Minneapolis acquired Wells Fargo back in the late 90s that they kept the name for the entire company and moved the headquarters to San Francisco. If they'd done it like Nations Bank did B of A we might have the name but all the movers and shakers would be somewhere else (like Charlotte).

[BayAreaHillbilly]

This is no surprise. Witnessing BofA's long downhill slide has been a bit saddening.

Giannini weeps from a better place.

[tickyul]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

All those bailouts and illegal foreclosures surely help their bottom line.

Wells Fargo DID NOT want any of the bailout money.



After the financial meltdown, the Fed had ALL of the top execs from the major banks in a meeting. Wells Fargo made it clear that they DID NOT want or NEED any money from Big Brother. The Fed made it clear that they BETTER take the money or things could get rough.

Wells Fargo had/has FAR less exposure to mortgage based securities, expecially the very-stinky ones.

Wells Fargo Assails TARP, Calls Stress Test


Even though Wells Fargo didn’t want the money, it must comply with the same rules that the government placed on banks that did need it, he said.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by tickyul

Wells Fargo DID NOT want any of the bailout money.



After the financial meltdown, the Fed had ALL of the top execs from the major banks in a meeting. Wells Fargo made it clear that they DID NOT want or NEED any money from Big Brother. The Fed made it clear that they BETTER take the money or things could get rough.

Wells Fargo had/has FAR less exposure to mortgage based securities, expecially the very-stinky ones.

Wells Fargo Assails TARP, Calls Stress Test


Even though Wells Fargo didn’t want the money, it must comply with the same rules that the government placed on banks that did need it, he said.

^^^ +1 ^^^

The Fed forced all the banks to take bailout money because if they let Wells Fargo take a pass, the market would realize the other banks who DID take capital were up the creek without a paddle.

It was misdirection.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

^^^ +1 ^^^

The Fed forced all the banks to take bailout money because if they let Wells Fargo take a pass, the market would realize the other banks who DID take capital were up the creek without a paddle.

It was misdirection.

Now the Dallas Fed has turned a critical eye on those earlier decisions. Last week they issued a white paper that was heavily critical of TARP, and essentially states that creative destructive would have caused less harm, ultimately, than TARP did. We never learn. The Japanese made the same exact mistakes and look at the lost decade (and then some) it got them. Not allowing the bad debt to be worked out of the system is like not fully curing someone of cancer while keeping the cancer at bay with chemo that is not a correct match for the patient. In this case, the chemo ought to have been, at most, one round of QE followed by a rigorous process to deal with the flood of Chapter 11 proceedings and foreclosures.

[.highnlite]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

All those bailouts and illegal foreclosures surely help their bottom line.

There is a large class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo for their illegal foreclosures.

thieves and robbers can prosper in bad times.

[tickyul]

Originally Posted by .highnlite

There is a large class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo for their illegal foreclosures.

thieves and robbers can prosper in bad times.

Wow, that really impresses me.

Losers who could not pay their mortgage...not they are all pouty. BUT they managed to find some lawyer to drum up some controversy...maybe they will get a few bucks out of it too.....impressive.