The bank, the US’ largest by market value, wants to expand into 20 markets around the world, according to today’s Financial Times, providing full corporate banking services to its US customers as they too expand globally.
Last year the company saw net revenue of just under $81bn – a very small amount of which was generated outside of the US. Tellingly, the company’s full year and quarterly results are split into “East” and “West” US components.
While Wells Fargo does not publish a financial breakdown of its business by geography, the FT estimates that only 2% of its 260,000 employees are based outside of the US. The majority of these overseas employees are based in representative offices around the world, inherited when Wells bought its rival Wachovia in 2008.
According to the FT, under its new strategy, Wells will open full corporate banking services in 20 countries including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, France, China Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea and Singapore.
The drive is reportedly going to be led by Richard York, former chief executive of HSBC China.
