🠈 Wells Fargo 🠊
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo (NYSE WFC) is a financial institution based in San Francisco. The company was founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo as a mail express and banking company to serve the California Gold Rush and Western United States. Two years early, Mr. Wells and Fargo had established a similar company in Buffalo, New York called American Express.
Wells Fargo purchased the Butterfield Overland Mail Route in 1860, and later took over the remainin assets of the Pony Express in 1866. In 1905 Wells Fargo spun off its express service and the bank merged with Nevada National Bank. In the ensuing two centuries, the bank went through a variety of mergers and contractions (notably the majority of assets of the company (minus the bank) were nationalized in 1918 during the First World War. Other notable mergers include the 1983 purchase of Crocker Nation, the 1988 purchase of Barclays Bank, the 1996 purchase of First Interstate Bank, and the 1996 Purchase of First Interstate Bank. In 1998 the company Norwest purchased Wells Fargo, then changed its name to Wells Fargo.
Other notable achievements, Wells Fargo was the first company to offer online banking services in May 1995.
I have always been impressed with Wells Fargo taste in architecture as many of the most inspiring buildings in towns in the Mountain West carry the company's brand.
See Wells Fargo History for more information on the history of the bank.
Branches
Pictures of Wells Fargo Buildings in my various wanderings:
Corporate Timeline
Norwest acquired Wells Fargo; So I wills start the merger chain with Norwest and nest Wells Fargo's history.
- 1929: Northwest Bancorporation opened.
- 1982: Northwest Bancorporation acquired Dial Finance which became Norwest Financial Service.
- 1983: Northwest rebranded as Norwest Corporation.
- 1998: Norwest acquired Wells Fargo and changed their name to Wells Fargo.
- 1852: Henry Wells and William G. Fargo formed Wells Fargo & Company to provide express and banking services to California. 1860: WF acquired the Butterfield Overland Mail Company which operated the Western portion of the Pony Express.
- 1866: Wells Fargo, Holladay, and Overland Mail consolidate as Wells Fargo.
- 1872: Lloyd Tevis, who owned rights to operate an express service over the Transcontinental Railroad, acquired WF.
- 1905: Wells Fargo spun off its express operations. The bank merged with the Nevada National Bank to form Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank.
- 1923: Wells Fargo Nevada merged with Union Trust Company to create Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company.
- 1954: Wells Fargo & Union Trust shortened its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
- 1960: WF merged with American Trust Company to create Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company.
- 1962: WF shortened its name to Wells Fargo Bank.
- 1968: WF merged with Sonoma Mortgage in a $10.8 million stock transfer.
- 1969: WF adopted a holding company structure with Wells Fargo & Company as parent and Wells Fargo Bank as the primary subsidiary.
- 1986: WF acquired Crocker National Corporation from Midland Bank.
- 1987: Wells Fargo acquired the personal trust business of Bank of America.
- 1988: WF acquired Barclays Bank of California from Barclays plc.
- 1995: WF became the first major US financial services firm to offer Internet banking.
- 1996: Wells Fargo acquired First Interstate Bancorp for US$11.6 billion.
History of First Interstate
- 1928: Amadeo Giannini consolidated his businesses as Transamerica Corporation.
- 1953: Anti-trust regulators forced separation of Transamerica Corporation and Bank of America.
- 1956: The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 forced Transamerica to spin off its bank operations Firstamerica Corporation which had 23 banks in 11 western states.
- 1961: Firstamerica changed its name to Western Bancorporation (WB). They operated in California as United California Bank.
- 1966: USB and HSBC formed Interbank Card Association and created Master Charge to compete with BankAmericard by the Bank of America.
- 1979: Master Charge changed its name to MasterCard.
- 1974: WB formed subsidiary Western Bancorporation Mortgage Company.
- 1979: WB formed the subsidiary Western Bancorp Venture Capital Company.
- 1981: Company changed is name to First Interstate Bancorp with the NYSE ticker I.
- 1984: First Interstate acquired Continental Illinois Ltd. which leased commercial vehicles as Commercial Alliance Corporation of New York
- 198?: First Interstate acquired Republic Realty Mortgage Corporation.
- 1986-1987: First Interstate attempted a $3.2 billion hostile takeover of the ailing Bank of America.
- 1987-1991: First Interstate lost millions on bad real estate loans.
- 2015: WF sold H.D. Vest Financial Services for $580 million.
References:
- Wikipedia - Wells Fargo (Drawn 3/6/2020)
Directory Listings:
- Phoenix Color - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Boulder Color - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Colorado Springs Color - Banking: Wells Fargo
- Garfield Colorado Links - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Grand Junction - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Missoula Websites - Banks: Wells Fargo Bank
- Carbon County Color - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Cedar City - Banks: Wells Fargo Bank
- Moab - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Park City, Utah - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Saint George - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Salt Lake Sites - Banks: Wells Fargo Bank
- Tooele - Banking: Wells Fargo
- Vernal, Utah. US - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Wasatch Color - Banks: Wells Fargo
- Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Banks: Wells Fargo