Wells Fargo Reports Mixed Results; Wealth, Investment Arm Income Drops

Tom Burroughes

15 April 2019

Wells Fargo, which recently announced that its chief executive, Timothy Sloan, was stepping down, on Friday reported a rise in net income for the first quarter of this year, at $5.9 billion, compared with $5.1 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

Diluted earnings per share rose to $1.20, compared with $0.96 a year earlier. Revenue came in at $21.6 billion, down from $21.9 billion, it said.

At the wealth management side , net income fell by 19 per cent in Q1 from a year earlier; revenue fell to $137 million, down by 4 per cent. The fall in revenue was mainly caused by lower asset-based fees and brokerage transaction revenue.

Client assets in wealth management stood at $232 billion, down by 4 per cent from the previous year, driven primarily by net outflows, partially offset by higher market valuations.

Across all businesses within wealth and investment management, client assets fell by 2 per cent to $1.8 trillion.

In March Timothy Sloan announced that he intends to retire from 30 June this year and step down as CEO, president and board member immediately. The board has elected C Allen Parker, who served as the bank’s general counsel, as an interim CEO and president, with immediate effect. Meanwhile, the lender is starting to find a new CEO and president.

The California-based bank has been through a difficult period. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wells Fargo to pay $185 million in penalties and fines in 2016 for creating those unwanted accounts. In another case, last year, the CFPB imposed a $1 billion fine against Wells Fargo for overcharging customers for mortgages and auto loans.