EUR 850.00 For Business Accounts Only

Morningstar | Wells Fargo Is Still Attempting to Put Its Account Scandals and Other Woes in the Rear-View Mirror

Wells Fargo is the top deposit-gatherer in the United States. Its strategy rests on deep customer relationships, sound risk management, and operational excellence. Successful execution of this strategy over decades has resulted in a wide economic moat, clearly evidenced in the company’s financials. Wells Fargo consistently paid less for balance sheet funding than most of its competitors over the past decade, and has also generated more revenue per dollar of assets than most peers over time. We attribute this low-cost funding to a loyal base of longtime customers--indeed, account closures did not spike during the worst of its sales problems, demonstrating that customers are willing to stick with the bank.Unlike its major competitors, Wells is not a top player in the capital markets. Its business model is more akin to regional banks than to money center institutions. According to the Financial Times, Wells Fargo generates less than half the investment banking fees of companies like JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, and trading revenue made up only a small percentage of noninterest income. Instead, Wells Fargo relies on the more stable revenue generated by its brokerage, advisory, and asset management businesses. It competes to a large extent with regional peers, and its scale advantages should grow in importance as technology and compliance spending increase fixed costs across the industry. For this reason, we believe Wells Fargo deserves a lower cost of capital--and higher multiple--than riskier peers.Wells Fargo’s sales culture overheated in recent years. Rather than attempting to improve its customers’ financial lives, management chose to increase revenue at all costs, introducing ill-conceived incentive programs for front-line employees. This decision led to widespread fraud and risked relationships and reputation built over decades. However, customers did not abandon Wells Fargo, and we think new programs focused on deepening active relationships will actually generate more revenue--and less wasted employee time--than overly ambitious product sales goals.