The West Coast-headquartered bank became the latest US lender to issue its quarterly figures, showing a broadly unchanged performance for its wealth and investments business.

Wells Fargo late last week announced that its wealth and investment management businesses  – including its private bank – reported $529 million in net income for the third quarter of 2024, unchanged on a year earlier.

Net interest income fell 16 per cent year-on-year to $842 million; noninterest income rose 13 per cent to $3.036 billion. Total revenue rose by 5 per cent to $3.878 billion, the California-headquartered bank said in a statement. 

Total client assets stood at $2.294 trillion as at September 30, rising by $18 billion on a year earlier.

Higher deposit costs pushed down net interest income, partly as clients switched cash to higher yielding alternatives, the bank said. Noninterest income was buoyed by a rise in markets, as well as higher brokerage transaction activity. 

Across the whole of Wells Fargo, net income fell to $5.114 billion, falling from $5.767 billion a year before; total revenue dipped to $20.366 billion from $20.857 billion. The lender’s Common Equity Tier 1 ratio – a measure of a bank’s shock absorber capital – was 11.3 per cent at the end of September. 

“We had solid results in the third quarter with both net income and diluted earnings per share up from the second quarter. Our earnings' profile is very different than it was five years ago as we have been making strategic investments in many of our businesses and de-emphasizing or selling others,” Charlie Scharf, CEO, said. “Our revenue sources are more diverse and fee-based revenue grew 16 per cent during the first nine months of the year, largely offsetting net interest income headwinds. We have maintained strong credit discipline and driven significant operating efficiencies in the company while investing heavily to build a risk and control environment appropriate for a bank of our size and complexity.

“While we believe there are significant benefits still to come from our investments, it is gratifying to see our actions having an impact on our business metrics and financial results,” he continued. “Our strong capital position enables us to continue investing in our businesses and we have consistently returned excess capital to our shareholders. We increased our third-quarter common stock dividend by 14 per cent and repurchased $3.5 billion of common stock in the third quarter and over $15 billion during the first nine months of this year, up over 60 per cent from a year ago. Our diluted common share count is down 7 per cent from a year ago and 22 per cent over the last five years,” Scharf added.