(Bloomberg) — Wells Fargo & Co.'s wealth and investment management business has the potential to earn multiples of what it brings in now, making it the largest growth opportunity for the world's biggest bank by market capitalization, Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said.
The division earns about $2.5 billion in profit annually and could make "a number of factors times that," Stumpf said Tuesday at an investor conference in New York. The business boasts margins of more than 25 percent, he said.
"The biggest opportunity Wells Fargo has is in wealth and investment management," he said. "It's not like the business is not great, it just could be a whole lot bigger. "
Wells Fargo reached an agreement in October with Credit Suisse Group AG to get the inside track on recruiting the Zurich-based company's private-bank employees. David Carroll, who runs Wells Fargo's wealth business from Charlotte, North Carolina, said at an investor conference last month that the firm had entertained 211 of Credit Suisse's 270 or so advisers at its St. Louis brokerage headquarters.
