![]() ![]() Richard Kovacevich, chairman and CEO of Norwest, became president and CEO of the new organization. With the merger, Paul Hazen, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo at the time became chairman of the new organization. The vision of the new company was to “satisfy all our customers financial needs and help them become financially successful.” Norwest stated that the rationale for the merger was to increase cross-selling opportunities to attract new customers and earn more of their business service existing customers better by providing more valuable advice, greater convenience, and better products allow team members to grow professionally and personally help communities to succeed and deliver outstanding returns to shareholders. ![]() Prior to the merger announcement, Wells Fargo ranked 10th and Norwest ranked 11th in the country in the banking industry. It was the nation’s largest mortgage underwriter and also a major player in consumer finance. On the other side, Norwest was a Minneapolis-based bank that had been one of the industry’s top-performing banks in the decade and one of the more successful U.S. It was the major franchise remaining in the California market and the second-largest holder of customer deposits in the state. Prior to the merger announcement, Wells Fargo was widely viewed as one of the prize candidates left in the rapidly consolidating banking industry. The new combined company would be called Wells Fargo & Company and would be the sixth largest bank in the United States, as well have the largest supermarket branch network and the largest Internet bank of any U.S. ![]() ![]() The Wells-Norwest combined company would have $191 billion in assets, more than 90,000 employees, approximately 20 million customers, and 5,777 financial services “stores” (mortgage, consumer finance, or banking stores) in 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, and internationally. The deal echoed the recent consolidation trend in banking such as Chase Manhattan’s merger with Chemical Banking in 1996 and Manufacturers Hanover in 1991. On June 8, 1998, California-based Wells Fargo and Minneapolis banking company, Norwest announced a “merger of equals” in a stock deal valued at $34 billion and one that created the Western Hemisphere’s most extensive and diversified financial services network. ![]()
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