Wells Fargo 2011 Annual Report Download - page 5

3
Betting on America
WellsFargo employs one of every 500 working
adults in America, making us the nation’s 12th
largest private employer. Chances are you
know someone who works for WellsFargo,
or someone who knows someone who does.
Thirty-seven percent of our team is racially and
ethnically diverse. This is slightly more than
the U.S. population, which is 36percent diverse.
This diversity should enable us to better
understand and respond to the financial needs
of our customers and communities.
Our reach is global, but at our heart we’re
a hometown American company. Ninety-
seven percent of our assets and 98percent of
our team members are based in the U.S. This
makes us dierent from our large peers. Our
roots are American roots, and we’ve grown as
they’ve spread wide and deep in American soil.
Since 1852, we’ve been betting on America.
We liked our bet then, and we like it even
more now. We’re confident in the ingenuity,
resourcefulness, work ethic, and can-do attitude
of Americans and our WellsFargo team.
Together, we’re focused on the tremendous
opportunities we now have ahead of us and
on the responsibilities we have to help our
customers, communities, and country succeed.
We’re focused on providing you, our
shareholders, with sustainable, long-term
success. We returned more capital to
shareholders in 2011 by increasing our quarterly
common stock dividend by 140percent, to
48cents for the year. We also resumed the
repurchase of our common stock.
Earning trust
The U.S. economy’s recovery remained sluggish
and continued to deliver disappointing
results. Millions of Americans struggled with
unemployment and underemployment despite
slight improvements in the job market. The
lack of jobs led to a decline in first-time home
sales, even with historic low interest rates and
bargain-basement prices. A stagnant housing
market placed a drag on the economy.
Consumers spent less and paid down their
debt, including mortgages, credit cards, and
auto loans. This made sense for consumers
who wanted to regain control of their financial
situation, but less spending didn’t help the
recovery. By year’s end, credit balances and
spending began trending upward again, but
balances were often paid in full each month.
Consumers were not alone. Businesses also
faced significant obstacles. Our quarterly
surveys of small business owners showed their
deep concerns about economic and credit
market outlooks, along with pending regulatory
reforms, and their potential eect on sales and
operating costs.
Many Americans remained frustrated with
the slow, uneven economic recovery and the
lack of job opportunities. As a result, they
have lost faith in many large companies and
institutions. We understand their concerns.
We’re listening to our customers every day
and helping them address their financial
needs in any way we can. We’re contributing
to communities across the country, helping
them find local solutions for local problems.
We’re also at the table in Washington,D.C.,
discussing the merits of proposed reforms for
the financial services industry. We want to be
a partner for thoughtful change, and we share
our government’s desire to do what’s right for
consumers and businesses.
We don’t take trust for granted. We know we
have to earn it every day in our conversations
and actions with our customers. Here’s how we
try to do that.
Helping our mortgage customers
First, no financial product is more important
to Americans, more interwoven with their
financial security, than their home mortgage.
Other financial services companies are backing
away from this business because of what they
perceive to be its high costs and its risks. Not
WellsFargo. Here’s why: Two-thirds of all
Americans are in the mortgage business. They
have mortgages on their homes. We want to be
there to satisfy not just their mortgage needs,
but all their other financial needs that connect
to their mortgage. We believe we have the right
products to oer mortgage customers and
the right underwriting principles to make sure
their loans are good loans. As a result, more
than 92percent of our mortgage customers
were current on their payments and fewer
than 2percent of our owner-occupied home
mortgages proceeded to a foreclosure sale.
1 in 500
WellsFargo employs more than
270,000 team members. That’s
1in500 working adults — making
us the 12th largest private
employer in the U.S.
No. 1
Our company had the highest
market capitalization in the
U.S. banking industry.
1 in 3
WellsFargo serves one in three
households in the U.S.