Wells Fargo

This is about who we are, where we’re headed and about how you—as a valued Wells Fargo team member—can help us get there and share in our collective success.

We are a big company. We’re the largest financial institution headquartered in the western U.S. We span all of North America. Our stock market value is about $100 billion. Forbes ranks us among the world’s top 50 companies based on a composite of sales, assets, profits and market value. We’re in the top 20 among all U.S. companies in profits and market value. We’re one of America’s 30 largest private employers, with more than 168,000 team members. We’ll continue to grow—not to become bigger but as a result of getting better.

Regardless of how big we are and how much territory we cover, we share, as one team, certain values that hold us together wherever we are and whatever we do. It doesn’t matter what our responsibilities are, our levels or titles, what businesses we’re part of, or where we live and work. We all should know our vision. We all should know how we contribute to achieving that vision. We all should be passionate about our values and share them with others. We believe everyone on our team is important and deserves respect. We believe everyone contributes to Wells Fargo being known as one of America’s great companies.

History
The famous image of the stagecoach and the reputation of the name saw Wells Fargo well through the mighty events and fantastic growth of the 20th Century. In prosperity, depression and war, even greater post-war prosperity, social changes and ever faster communications technologies, Wells Fargo’s attention to customers’ business has seen it through these great events and brought success.

Sound management
In 1905 Wells Fargo&Co’s Bank, San Francisco (as it was called since 1852), formally separated from Wells Fargo&Co Express. The bank then survived the disaster of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Bank president I.W. Hellman telegraphed, “Building Destroyed, Vault Intact, Credit Unaffected.” From that confident note, Wells Fargo began rebuilding its banking business across the West.

In the 1910s and ’20s Wells Fargo served as a commercial bank in San Francisco, supporting the West’s growing business and agriculture, including fledgling auto, aerospace and film industries. The Wells Fargo Stagecoach became a regular actor in Hollywood westerns.

Sound management helped the bank weather the Great Depression, serve the nation during World War II, and positioned the bank to meet new consumer banking needs in the prosperous post-war era.

Innovative solutions
New banking concepts not only changed where people banked, but also how they banked. Drive-up tellers, banking by phone, express lines, credit cards, automated teller machines and online banking are some of the innovative solutions to modern customers’ needs. As in the stagecoach days, Wells Fargo has been a pioneer in bringing banking convenience to its customers.

Through the 20th Century Wells Fargo rebuilt from just one office in San Francisco. From 1905 to 1923 it was a premier downtown San Francisco institution. Expanding in 1923 to two marbled banking halls, Wells Fargo was a “banker’s bank” that served all the west.

In 1960s prosperity, Wells Fargo became a northern California regional bank with branch offices everywhere people lived and played, from the coast to the mountains. In the 1980s Wells Fargo expanded into a state-wide bank and became the seventh largest bank in the nation — and launched its online service.

In the 1990s Wells Fargo returned to its historic territory throughout the Western, Midwestern and Eastern states.

Today in the 21st Century, with extensive and diversified financial services, the Wells Fargo name once again extends “Ocean-to-Ocean,” “Over-the-Seas,” and, of course, On-Line.