Wells Fargo 2012 Annual Report Download - page 110

Risk Factors (continued)
RISKS RELATED TO FINANCIAL REGULATORY
REFORM AND OTHER LEGISLATION AND
REGULATIONS
Enacted legislation and regulation, including the Dodd-
Frank Act, as well as future legislation and/or
regulation, could require us to change certain of our
business practices, reduce our revenue and earnings,
impose additional costs on us or otherwise adversely
affect our business operations and/or competitive
position. Our parent company, our subsidiary banks and many
of our nonbank subsidiaries such as those related to our retail
brokerage and mutual fund businesses, are subject to significant
regulation under state and federal laws in the U.S., as well as the
applicable laws of the various jurisdictions outside of the U.S.
where we conduct business. These regulations protect
depositors, federal deposit insurance funds, consumers,
investors and the banking and financial system as a whole, not
necessarily our stockholders. Economic, market and political
conditions during the past few years have led to a significant
amount of new legislation and regulation in the U.S. and abroad.
These laws and regulations may affect the manner in which we
do business and the products and services that we provide, affect
or restrict our ability to compete in our current businesses or our
ability to enter into or acquire new businesses, reduce or limit
our revenue in businesses or impose additional fees, assessments
or taxes on us, intensify the regulatory supervision of us and the
financial services industry, and adversely affect our business
operations or have other negative consequences.
On July 21, 2010, the Dodd-Frank Act, the most significant
financial reform legislation since the 1930s, became law. The
Dodd-Frank Act, among other things, (i) established the
Financial Stability Oversight Council to monitor systemic risk
posed by financial firms and imposes additional and enhanced
FRB regulations, including capital and liquidity requirements, on
certain large, interconnected bank holding companies such as
Wells Fargo and systemically significant nonbanking firms
intended to promote financial stability; (ii) creates a liquidation
framework for the resolution of covered financial companies, the
costs of which would be paid through assessments on surviving
covered financial companies; (iii) makes significant changes to
the structure of bank and bank holding company regulation and
activities in a variety of areas, including prohibiting proprietary
trading and private fund investment activities, subject to certain
exceptions; (iv) creates a new framework for the regulation of
over-the-counter derivatives and new regulations for the
securitization market and strengthens the regulatory oversight of
securities and capital markets by the SEC; (v) established the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) within the FRB,
which has sweeping powers to administer and enforce a new
federal regulatory framework of consumer financial regulation;
(vi) may limit the existing pre-emption of state laws with respect
to the application of such laws to national banks, makes federal
pre-emption no longer applicable to operating subsidiaries of
national banks, and gives state authorities, under certain
circumstances, the ability to enforce state laws and federal
consumer regulations against national banks; (vii) provides for
increased regulation of residential mortgage activities; (viii)
revised the FDIC's assessment base for deposit insurance by
changing from an assessment base defined by deposit liabilities
to a risk-based system based on total assets; (ix) phases out over
three years beginning January 2013 the Tier 1 capital treatment
of trust preferred securities; (x) permitted banks to pay interest
on business checking accounts beginning on July 1, 2011; (xi)
authorized the FRB under the Durbin Amendment to adopt
regulations that limit debit card interchange fees received by
debit card issuers; and (xii) includes several corporate
governance and executive compensation provisions and
requirements, including mandating an advisory stockholder vote
on executive compensation.
The Dodd-Frank Act and many of its provisions became
effective in July 2010 and July 2011. However, a number of its
provisions still require extensive rulemaking, guidance, and
interpretation by regulatory authorities. Accordingly, in many
respects the ultimate impact of the Dodd-Frank Act and its
effects on the U.S. financial system and the Company still remain
uncertain. Nevertheless, the Dodd-Frank Act, including current
and future rules implementing its provisions and the
interpretation of those rules, could result in a loss of revenue,
require us to change certain of our business practices, limit our
ability to pursue certain business opportunities, increase our
capital requirements and impose additional assessments and
costs on us and otherwise adversely affect our business
operations and have other negative consequences.
Our consumer businesses, including our mortgage, credit
card and other consumer lending and non-lending businesses,
may be negatively affected by the activities of the CFPB, which
has broad rulemaking powers and supervisory authority over
consumer financial products and services. Although the full
impact of the CFPB on our businesses is uncertain, the CFPB’s
activities may increase our compliance costs and require changes
in our business practices as a result of new regulations and
requirements which could limit or negatively affect the products
and services that we currently offer our customers. As a result of
greater regulatory scrutiny of our consumer businesses, we also
may become subject to more or expanded regulatory
examinations and/or investigations, which also could result in
increased costs and harm to our reputation in the event of a
failure to comply with the increased regulatory requirements.
The Dodd-Frank Act’s proposed prohibitions or limitations
on proprietary trading and private fund investment activities,
known as the “Volcker Rule,” also may reduce our revenue and
earnings, although proprietary trading has not been significant
to our financial results. Although rules to implement the
requirements of the Volcker Rule were proposed in 2011, final
rules have not yet been issued, and the ultimate impact of the
Volcker Rule on our investment activities, including our venture
capital business, is uncertain.
Money market mutual fund reform is also currently being
evaluated. The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC)
proposed new regulations to address the perceived risks that
money market mutual funds may pose to the financial stability of
the United States. These proposals include implementation of
floating net asset value requirements, redemption holdback
provisions, and capital buffer requirements and would be in
addition to regulatory changes made by the Securities and
108