Wells Fargo 2008 Annual Report Download - page 11

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with us covering the full range of lending and operating
services such as Treasury Management, the Commercial
Electronic O ce®, and Desktop Deposit®.
Our Asset Management group now has $500 billion in
assets under management. In the last fi ve years our mutual
funds have grown from the 27th-largest fund complex in 2003
($78 billion) to the 14th-largest in 2008 ($172 billion). Combined
with Wachovia’s Evergreen Investments, our mutual fund assets
under management had a balance of $250 billion, among the 15
largest in our industry.
We welcome to our Board
With the merger, four members of the Wachovia Board have
joined the Wells Fargo Board, and we’re benefi ting from
their experience and knowledge of Wachovia’s markets and
customers. We welcome:
• John Baker, president and CEO of Patriot Transportation
Holding, Inc., Jacksonville, Florida, Wachovia Board member
since 2001.
• Don James, chairman and CEO of Vulcan Materials
Company, Birmingham, Alabama, Wachovia Board member
since 2004.
• Mackey McDonald, retired chairman and CEO of
VF Corporation, an apparel manufacturer in Greensboro,
North Carolina, Wachovia Board member since 1997.
• Bob Steel, former president and CEO of Wachovia
Corporation, Wachovia Board member since 2008.
We also thank:
• Dick Kovacevich, who, at the Board’s invitation, agreed
to continue as chairman for an interim period to help us
successfully integrate Wachovia into Wells Fargo. His
experience and counsel are needed now more than ever
because he shaped our company’s vision and values and
led what is known as the most successful merger of two
large fi nancial services companies in U.S. history — the
Norwest-Wells Fargo merger 10 years ago.
• Phil Quigley, who our Board elected to the new position
of lead director to work with Dick and me to approve
Board meeting agendas, chair meetings of independent
directors, call executive sessions of the Board, help ensure
coordinated coverage of Board responsibilities, and facilitate
communication between the Board and senior management.
• Mike Wright, retired chairman and CEO of
SUPERVALU INC., who will retire from the Board in April
2009 after 18 years of service to our company. Mike joined
our Board in 1991 and has served on the Credit, Human
Resources, and Governance and Nominating Committees.
We thank him for his outstanding contributions to the
governance of our company.
The year ahead: we believe in America
If you’re a pessimist, there’s a lot for you to like about 2009.
It will be a rough year for our economy and our industry.
Consumer loans will continue under stress with falling home
prices, a nine-month inventory of unsold homes nationally,
higher unemployment, less disposable income and discretionary
spending, more bankruptcies. Credit quality will not improve
until the housing market stabilizes. Charge-o s (uncollectible
debt) probably will continue to rise. Loan losses in consumer
credit businesses including home equity will continue higher
than normal until home values stop falling.
Regardless of what the economy and the markets do in
2009, we focus on our vision and on doing what’s right for our
customers. Now, more than ever before in our lifetimes, people
need a safe, trustworthy, capable fi nancial advisor who can
partner with them to help plan and achieve their fi nancial goals
for a home, education, building a business and retirement.
Despite the pain of 2008, we continue to believe in the spirit,
ingenuity, work ethic, creativity and adaptability of American
workers. We’re capitalists and proud of it. We believe in free
enterprise. We’re Americans fi rst, bankers second. We’re
long-term optimists. We believe in the economic potential of
every one of our communities, from Atlanta to Anchorage,
from Galveston to Great Falls. We believe in the United States
of America as a beacon for freedom, liberty and economic
opportunity worldwide. We believe our country can learn from
its mistakes and survive downturns in business cycles better
than any country in the world. It’s still the global leader in
technology, manufacturing and services, still the global leader
by far in gross domestic product, still the leader in global
buying power, still the best place in the world in which to invest
and do business.
Our country and our ancestors have faced far more di cult
challenges than those we face today. Just ask your grandparents
or read about their lives. My parents were children of the Great
Depression. They raised 11 children on a family farm in central
Minnesota, worked hard and sacrifi ced, and taught us what is
really important in life. I see no reason why with discipline and
determination our great country cannot persevere and prosper
through these times as well. Now more than ever before, our
company wants to stand by our customers and do what’s right
for them just as Wells Fargo has done for almost 16 decades and
seven generations.
We thank all our 281,000 team members from Wells Fargo
and Wachovia for working together with our customers to earn
more of their business and for collaborating to help ensure
a smooth merger integration. We thank our customers for
entrusting us with more of their business and for returning
to us for their next fi nancial services product. We thank our
communities for allowing us to serve them. And we thank you,
our owners, for your confi dence in Wells Fargo as we begin
our 158th year.
Together we’ll go far!
John G. Stumpf, President and Chief Executive O cer