Wells Fargo’s profits slumped as fourth quarter earnings missed expectations
Wells Fargo today reported profits were down for the second year as its fourth quarter earnings missed expectations.
The figures
The US' third-largest bank said quarterly net income was down to $5.3bn (£4.3bn) from $5.6bn the previous year, while diluted earnings per share were down to $0.96 compared with $1.00 last year.
Revenue stayed consistent with the fourth quarter of 2015 at $21.6bn.
Total average loans rose six per cent to $964.1bn compared with the fourth quarter of 2016.
Net income for the full year was down to $21.9bn from $22.9bn in 2015, and earnings per share for the year were down to $3.99 from $4.12.
Revenue was up three per cent on last year to $88.3bn.
Why its interesting
Wells Fargo has been working to clean up the mess created by a sales scandal earlier in 2016. John Stumpf quit as chief executive in October in the wake of the investigation into claims that the bank's employers opened as many as two million unauthorised new accounts using current customer names.
The bank agreed to pay $185m to settle regulatory charges and sacked over 5,000 employees.
What Wells Fargo said
Chief executive Tim Sloan said:
We continued to make progress in the fourth quarter in rebuilding the trust of our customers, team members and other key stakeholders. I am pleased with the progress we have made in customer remediation, the ongoing review of sales practices across the company and fulfilling our regulatory requirements for sales practices matters.
While we have more work to do, I am proud of the effort of our entire team to make things right for our customers and team members and to continue building a better Wells Fargo for the future.