Along with its peers so far at the start of the Q4 reporting season, Wells Fargo listed out a set of stronger bottom-line results for its wealth management business.

Wells Fargo said its wealth and investment management business, which includes its private banking arm, reported net income in the fourth quarter of 2024 of $508 million, up from $491 million a year before. 

Total revenue in this part of the California-headquartered bank was driven by revenues of $3.958 billion in Q4, versus $3.66 billion a year earlier. Noninterest costs rose 9 per cent year-on-year to $3.307 billion. Provision for credit losses widened to $27 million from $19 million, the bank said in a statement. 

Total client assets stood at $2.293 trillion at the end of December 2024, up from $2.084 trillion a year earlier. 

Across the whole of Wells Fargo, net income rose to $5.079 billion in Q4 2024 from $3.446 billion; total revenue slipped to $20.378 billion from $20.478 billion; noninterest expenses fell to $13.9 billion from $15.786 billion. 

"Turning to Wells Fargo’s performance, our solid performance this quarter caps a year of significant progress for Wells Fargo. Our earnings profile continues to improve, we are seeing the benefit from investments we are making to increase our growth and improve how we serve our customers and communities, we maintained a strong balance sheet, we returned approximately $25 billion of capital to shareholders, and we made significant progress on our risk and control work," Charlie Scharf, CEO, said in a statement. 

The bank had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 11.1 per cent at the end of December, narrowing a touch from a year earlier.