Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is a diversified financial services company in the United States, with consumer finance subsidiaries doing business in Canada, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Caribbean.

With Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Wells Fargo Banks, Wells Fargo Insurance, Wells Fargo Private Client Services (composed of brokerage, trust, and private banking), Norwest Private equity, Foothill (Corporate Asset based lending) and Wells Fargo Financial (consumer finance), the company sells virtually every type of financial service available.

Headquarted in San Francisco, Wells Fargo is a result of the acquisition of California-based Wells Fargo & Co. by Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. Norwest changed its name to Wells Fargo by the start of 2000.

Henry Wells and William Fargo founded Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 as a stagecoach company during the California Gold Rush. Its major focus was its express business until World War I, when the U.S. government nationalized the express business; the company then shifted its focus to financial services. The stagecoach still appears prominently in Wells Fargo advertising and brand image.

The current CEO is Richard Kovacevich.

Diversity

Wells Fargo recieved a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report.

External links

• Wells Fargo corporate About page: http://www.wellsfargo.com/about/about.jhtml
• Wells Fargo history FAQ: http://www.wellsfargohistory.com/history/faqsite.html
• WFC: Profile for WELLS FARGO & CO - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WFC)