Wells Fargo isn’t based in Charlotte, but it has more employees here than any of its rivals.
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Charlotte is home to two major banks, but a third player — with its headquarter city on the other side of the country — still looms large.
On Tuesday, Wells Fargo announced major shifts and renovations to its office spaces in Charlotte — changes that will impact thousands of employees, thanks to the bank being one of the largest employers in the city.
But why does Wells Fargo have such a big presence in Charlotte to begin with? And why do not one, not two, but three Charlotte office towers bear its name?
Here’s what you need to know about one of the city’s biggest banks.
How big is Wells Fargo?
Wells Fargo is the country’s fourth largest bank by assets, at $1.7 trillion. That number is capped by the Federal Reserve, which restricted the bank’s ability to grow in the aftermath of the 2016 fake accounts scandal — more on that below.
While Bank of America is a bigger bank by assets and has its headquarters here in Charlotte, Wells Fargo has a significantly larger employee base in the region.
In 2021, Bank of America had 16,000 workers in the Charlotte area. By contrast, Wells Fargo has about 27,000.
Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco and has about 250,000 employees companywide, according to its most recent annual report.
Why does Wells Fargo have such a big presence in Charlotte?
Wells Fargo’s local footprint can be traced back to the bank’s $15 billion acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia in 2008, in the midst of the financial crisis. Wells Fargo expanded employment in Charlotte even after buying the bank.
As part of the deal, Wells Fargo took over local office spaces, including the One Wells Fargo building — the headquarters of Wachovia predecessor First Union — and 550 S. Tryon St. The South Tryon tower was designed to be Wachovia’s new headquarters before the bank collapsed in the crisis.
The One, Two and Three Wells Fargo Centers have donned the name of three different banks in Charlotte, beginning with First Union, and each building can be traced back to that bank’s office footprint in the city. Counter-intuitively, Two Wells Fargo Center is older than the other towers, with parts of the building dating back to the 1950s.
Wells Fargo is moving out of that building and its One Wells Fargo Center headquarters, according to its new office plans. Both of those buildings will get new names when new tenants move in, bank spokesman Josh Dunn said Tuesday.
Why is Wells Fargo in the news so much?
Wells Fargo has faced harsh scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers in recent years dating back to its 2016 scandal — when it was discovered that bank employees created millions of fake accounts for customers without their knowledge in order to meet aggressive sales goals.
Since then, regulators have identified a number of problems with how the bank handled mortgages, auto loans and consumer deposit accounts.
Last year, that culminated in a $3.7 billion charge in fines and restitution from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The consumer agency found that, over a period of several years, Wells Fargo charged surprise overdraft fees, incorrectly applied car loan payments and improperly denied mortgage modifications — the last of which caused customers to lose their vehicles or homes.
It was the largest penalty in the agency’s history, and led to a 50% drop in fourth quarter profits for the bank.
Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf has maintained that the bank is headed in the right direction to resolve the issues at the heart of the 2016 scandal, despite last year’s setbacks.
“While our risk and regulatory work hasn’t always followed a straight line and we have more to do, we have made significant progress, and are moving forward,” he said in a statement on the bank’s fourth quarter earnings release.
This story was originally published January 31, 2023 3:08 PM.
