How Wells Fargo reached milestone as world’s most valuable bank

How Wells Fargo reached milestone as world’s most valuable bank

By Yalman Onaran Bloomberg News

Posted: Friday, Dec. 19, 2014 Daniel Acker - Bloomberg


Behind Wells Fargo & Co.’s ascent to the world’s most valuable bank lies a cheap and reliable source of funds favored by regulators and less popular with its largest rivals: retail bank deposits.

Wells Fargo gets 78 percent of its funding from deposits, and 90 percent are so-called core deposits – small amounts from individuals and other account-holders that are viewed as slower to yank their money than big institutions, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The bank has more than tripled deposits in seven years, adding the equivalent of Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. in the past two.

Under CEO John Stumpf, Wells Fargo has focused on the consumer, corporate and real estate lending common among regional banks instead of adopting the sprawling universal bank models typical of the biggest banks. This month the company surpassed the record set by Sandy Weill’s Citigroup Inc. in 2001 for most valuable bank in U.S. history.

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