More than five years after Wells Fargo purchased Wachovia at the height of the financial crisis, one of its key businesses—investment banking—is finally beginning to pay off.
Industry league tables— generally treated as scorecards ranking banks based on the number and volume of deals they did—showed the San Francisco-based company creeping into the top 10 for the first time. And Wells is winning, according to CEO John Stumpf, by taking business away from its rivals.
"We have grown market share," he said at a December industry conference, "from 4.1 percent in 2009 (at the Wachovia deal) to 5.7 percent to the first nine months of 2013."
The bank has been stealthily growing its investment banking business as rivals have pulled back. Stumpf would know, because he's been participating firsthand. Bankers say he now, like other chief executives, will make client rounds, visiting with corporate CEOs to tout Wells Fargo's expertise on a certain deal.
