Wells
Fargo Private Bank has name Erik Davidson to the newly-created role
of deputy chief investment officer.

Davidson joined
Wells Fargo in 2004 and most recently served as managing director of
investments for the Western US unit. At this new role, he will be
based out of the bank's Carmel office in California and will oversee
a team of seven regional CIOs across the country. He continues to
report to Dean Junkans, chief investment officer.

The firm said it
had created the deputy CIO role to ensure a "consistent message"
across its wealth management businesses.

Wells
Fargo earlier this year made a small number of job cuts at its wealth
management business, laying off around 15 employees in the Carolinas,
as part of a reorganization of that business as a result of Project
Compass, a drive to trim quarterly expenses at the bank by $1.5
billion by the final quarter of 2012. In total, the firm employs some
275,000 people.

The
bank is not the only one to be examining its cost base, with banking
giants such as UBS, HSBC and – just today – Deutsche Bank all
announcing much larger-scale job cuts.

A
spokesperson for Wells Fargo, Josh Dunn, said back in August the firm
was streamlining operations and positioning the organization “to
more effectively meet the clients' needs,” according to the Charlotte Observer.

Wells
Fargo reported a second-quarter profit of $3.9 billion, or 70 cents a
share, up from 55 cents a year earlier. The results were aided by a
decline in loan losses. Second-quarter expenses had fallen by 2 per
cent from a year earlier to $12.5 billion.

At
the firm’s wealth, brokerage and retirement division net income
rose to $333 million in the three months to 30 June this year from
$270 million a year ago, although the latest quarterly results
represented a small dip from $339 million in the quarter ending 30
March.