By Lauren Thomas and Gina Heeb
For years, Wells Fargo executives skeptical of building an investment bank touted a mantra of "kitchen tables, not league tables." Now, under Chief Executive Charlie Scharf, their bankers are scoring a record year for the firm.
Wells Fargo is ranked seventh on the U.S. M&A league tables, compared with 14th last year, according to data from LSEG. That is the highest it has been since LSEG's records began in 1980.
Bankers spend years trying to claw up one or two spots in the closely watched industry rankings.
Wells Fargo has advised on big deals including the Netflix bid for Warner Bros., Union Pacific's acquisition of Norfolk Southern, Cox Communications sale to Charter Communications and Worldpay's sale to Global Payments.
It is the result of a concerted push under Scharf, who took over as CEO in 2019, to hire top talent and win bigger deal mandates. Within Wells, investment bankers are more motivated and collaborative across the firm, according to people who work there.
"Now we have people calling us to a large degree," said David DeNunzio, chairman of global M&A at Wells Fargo. "We no longer have to explain who we are and what we are doing here."
Scharf has laid out the lofty goal of being a top five investment bank globally. But the bank acknowledges it has a lot of distance to go, and the competition will be steep with other institutions, including Citigroup and UBS, who are pledging similar improvements and hiring aggressively.
"History is littered with companies that have tried to build investment banks and have failed because they've done it without a real competitive advantage," Scharf said at a Goldman Sachs conference earlier this month. "There are only a select few of us that have a $2 trillion balance sheet."
Wells Fargo has more freedom to grow now, too. In early June, the bank was freed from the asset cap that the Federal Reserve had put in place as a punishment for a scandal involving the creation of millions of fake customer accounts. For the first time in seven years, the bank has been able to grow beyond that $2 trillion in assets.
For Wells executives, the investment bank build-out was seen as a natural next step, given its vast Rolodex of corporate and commercial clients. Bigger Wall Street businesses would allow Wells to rely less on income from the interest it makes on loans. And it would give the business more of a hedge for economic downturns.
A hiring spree
To build the business, Wells Fargo has been on a hiring spree, hunting star bankers. That took some hard sells.
The global head of M&A is now Jeff Hogan, who had worked at Morgan Stanley for more than 20 years before making the move in 2023.
He quickly shut down a headhunter who had reached out to him. But after speaking to Tim O'Hara, head of banking, and others, he became more excited about spending the remainder of his professional career building something.
In February of last year, Wells lured Doug Braunstein, who spent roughly two decades at JPMorgan in roles including chief financial officer and head of global M&A.
Now vice chairman at Wells, Braunstein is seen as a driver for deals, both with clients and bankers.
With Braunstein, "effort didn't count, results did," said Rob Holmes, who worked under him for a number of years at JPMorgan and is now the CEO of the bank Texas Capital. It was "one of the most intense periods of my career," he said of their time working together.
Fernando Rivas came over from JPMorgan in the middle of 2024 and now leads the corporate and investment banking group, which also houses markets and commercial real estate.
Rivas was the investment banker on a number of high-profile deals alongside Scharf, including JPMorgan Chase's $58 billion acquisition of Bank One in 2004 and its rescue of Washington Mutual in 2008.
All in, Wells Fargo has hired more than 90 managing directors in banking in the last three years, according to O'Hara. Other hires have included Jon Huerta as head of industrials IB, Cory Rapkin as head of healthcare IB, Brian Gudofsky as head of tech, media and telecom IB and Malcolm Price as head of financial sponsors.
Derek Van Zandt, who joined as head of media and telecom last year, had a relationship with Netflix that landed the bank a role on the giant Warner deal.
"Relationships get you in the room but it doesn't win you IB business," said Rivas. "You have to have a team of bankers that they like more than the other banks."
A record deal loan
Wells Fargo still has a long way to go to catch the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan.
"For all the success we had this year, we are still nipping at the heels of giants who earned their positions over the last 50 years," said Hogan. "We are humble about what it will take to play in that league."
But it has used its size in new ways. The role advising on Netflix's proposed $72 billion takeover of Warner Bros. included helping provide a $59 billion bridge loan for the deal. Wells Fargo's $29.5 billion commitment toward that loan represents the largest commitment ever by any bank for an investment-grade bridge facility.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration invited Wells to pitch itself for a role on the blockbuster initial public offerings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with other megabanks. Some Wells executives were happily surprised to be invited, according to people familiar with the matter.
Industry watchers also think Wells Fargo could one day do a deal of its own. With the asset cap lifted, the bank is increasingly thought of as a potential buyer. (Executives at Wells have said publicly they are more focused on organic growth.)
"Whatever you want to say about Wells, we are not going anywhere," DeNunzio said.
Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com and Gina Heeb at gina.heeb@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2025 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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