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.