Wells Fargo Combines Private Bank, Ultra-High-Net-Worth Arms

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. plans to combine its ultra-high-net-worth business and private bank under one leader.

• The merged operation will be run by someone yet to be named who will report to Jon Weiss, head of wealth and investment management, according to an internal memo. The two operations will retain their current branding and offerings.

Key Insights

• Wells Fargo has made changes as it conducts an enterprise-wide review in the wake of a series of consumer scandals. The wealth unit has come under fire from regulators for potentially steering clients into investments that weren’t always in their best interest.
• Like the larger Wells Fargo, the wealth unit is a collection of businesses from the bank’s predecessors including Norwest Corp. and Wachovia Corp. Combining the private bank and Abbot Downing, the ultra-high-net-worth unit, is part of Weiss’s quest to streamline his operation since he took over last year.
• Wells Fargo has said it’s trying to find $4 billion in cost cuts by the end of next year. The San Francisco-based lender has seen elevated spending amid regulatory fines and legal fees. Weiss has said he plans to eliminate $600 million in costs by 2020 as part of that effort.

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• From Nov. 7: Wells Fargo is said to be weighing a sale of its retirement plan services business, also part of Weiss’s larger wealth and investment-management unit
• From June 19: Wells Fargo Is Weighing Changes to Wealth Unit Amid Cost-Cutting

To contact the reporter on this story: Hannah Levitt in New York at hlevitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Dan Reichl, Steve Dickson

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