Wells Fargo & Company is an American international banking and financial services holding company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with "hubquarters" throughout the country. It is the third largest bank in the U.S. by assets and the world's largest bank by market capitalization. In July 2015, Wells Fargo became the world's largest bank by market capitalization, edging past ICBC. Wells Fargo surpassed Citigroup Inc. to become the third-largest U.S. bank by assets at the end of 2015. Wells Fargo is the second largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, and debit cards.
In 2015, Wells Fargo ranked 10th on the Forbes Magazine Global 2000 list of largest public companies in the world and ranked 30th on the Forbes 500 list of largest companies in the United States, according to Fortune 500 (2015).In 2015, the company was ranked the 22nd most admired company in the world, and the 7th most respected company in the world
As of October 2015, the company had a credit rating of AA-. However, for a brief period in 2007, the company was the only AAA-rated bank.
The firm's primary U.S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Wells Fargo in its present form is a result of a merger between San Francisco–based Wells Fargo & Company andMinneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998 and the subsequent 2008 acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia. Following the mergers, the company transferred its headquarters to Wells Fargo's headquarters in San Francisco and merged its operating subsidiary with Wells Fargo's operating subsidiary in Sioux Falls.
Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, Wells Fargo is one of the "Big Four Banks" of the United States.
As of December 31, 2015, it had 8,700 retail branches and 13,000 automated teller machines.
The company operates across 35 countries and has over 70 million customers globally.
In February 2014, Wells Fargo was named the world's most valuable bank brand for the second year running in The Banker and Brand Finance study of the top 500 banking brands.