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I'm here in our New York studio with the CEO of Wells Fargo, Charlie Sharf. Of course, the fourth largest US bank out there, a bank that is now actually growing after roughly what 6 years or so of regulatory constraints. You've been there for more than 6 years navigating through those constraints. I think a lot of people have seen the fix that you've done over that time and now the big question is what do the next six years look like? Is that a growth story?
It certainly is for us. I mean, we're incredibly proud of the progress that we've made. We're a very different company than we were when I got to the company. I guess it'll be 7 years in November. And what you've seen since the asset cap has come off is that we're able to compete on a level playing field with everyone. And we're growing our consumer bank. We're growing our commercial bank. We're growing the wealth business. We're growing our core investment bank. And we're doing it in a way with very highly focused on sustainable growth and higher returns, and we think we got huge opportunity in front of us.
When you say sustainable growth, some investors want to see aggressive growth. Yeah. Can you be aggressive and be disciplined and sustainable?
I think you listen in this business you got to be very very careful about what aggressive means and we also have to be very very careful about distinguishing between what the markets are adding to our performance or any other financial services provider's performance and what we're doing. We're not looking for quick wins. We're not looking to take outsized risks in the short term to drive stronger results. We're looking at building the underlying franchise, building customer relationships, building flow of things that will go up and down based upon how the markets are doing. But that's what I mean when I say sustainable over a period of time.
Well, talk about this transition then because over the past few years, I mean, people will look at what you've done over the last few years and call that a turnaround story. Although, we should point out Wells was in relatively good shape even when that asset cap was placed back in 2018. Was that a turnaround story or was that just kind of regulatory rehab?
Well, I think I wouldn't call it. I think you're right. It's not a turnaround story. The company was always very strong. We always had a great franchise, but we had to fix things that needed to get fixed inside the company. But from our customer standpoint, we were serving them every day. We were making loans. We were taking deposits. We were constrained on growth, but we were there providing what we did day in and day out. And financially, we were still doing okay. And when we looked at what we were able to deliver, we weren't able to grow our balance sheet. We've been focused a lot on efficiency inside the company. We've been focused a lot on growing our fees inside the business. So, our corporate investment bank has grown very nicely. Our credit card business and credit card spend is growing very very nicely, focused on building treasury services, and now we can grow the balance sheet so we can more holistically serve customers. And that's what you see when you look at the results of this past quarter with earnings per share up 25%. Revenue growth double digits growth across every one of our businesses in terms of revenue. We're certainly in a different place and our goal is to be viewed as the best financial services provider in these businesses in the country.
How much of that is because of Charlie Sharf and the executive team and how much of that is because of market conditions and economic conditions?
Well, I think it's predominantly because of the quality of the franchise and the broad group of people that work at the company. Listen, what I and the new management team been able to do is get people focused, create a different set of priorities, but a lot of people execute day in and day out. And the fact is the markets do help. So there's no question that these times are really good for banks. And so if you're not doing really well as a bank today, there's something not quite right with either how you're executing, what your strategy is. And that's not lost on us. But again, we look at the underlying metrics of each business. Are we growing our consumer checking accounts? We're growing commercial banking customers. We're growing the kinds of loans that we want to grow. We're taking the risks that we want to take that we think will provide strong returns over cycles and not get over our skis and not pretend that it's all us. Some of it is the markets for sure.
You just reported earnings and the number that I think jumped out for a lot of folks was the growth in the investment banking business. You've been on a hiring spree there. Does that continue that buildout?
Yeah. So, we've been on I would call it a disciplined path to growth in our corporate investment bank. We're a huge lender to corporates of all sizes in this country, large corporates down to middle market companies. We provide treasury services and what we're doing is building on those relationships with a stronger set of products and services, coverage groups, M&A underwriting capabilities. And so we've been very disciplined about adding resources in a sequential way, seeing that they're paying off and we're seeing the results. And so yeah, we would expect that to continue as we move towards our ambition of being top five.
As well the ambition of being top five. I am curious. You and your executive team are based here in New York. Obviously the bank headquartered in San Francisco, your largest employee base down in North Carolina in Charlotte, I believe. As you build out an investment banking business, can you do that in Charlotte, San Francisco, or is that a New York story?
It's a combination of all the above. I mean, when you... So, we do have more resources in New York than we used to have, for sure. But as you point out, we have more people in North Carolina and in Charlotte than any other specific location. And that goes back to the merger of Wachovia and Wells Fargo. Half of our corporate investment bank is down in Charlotte. The other half is here. We also have offices around the country and other parts of the world. And so we would expect to see growth in both locations and closer to serving customers across the country.
How committed is Wells Fargo to its footprint here in New York City?
Listen, we have about between 4,000 and 5,000 in New York. That number at this point will probably in total stay roughly what it is. And the question for us is going to be where's the best talent? Where do they want to live? Where do they find the most attractive place for them to want to live and do business? It's very hard for us to get people to move from North Carolina to New York even when we try. Sometimes it's hard to get people from New York down there. There are people that self-select and over a period of time how New York does and how North Carolina does and how California does matter to where people want to live and that'll be an important driver.
I am curious about that though. I mean at your bank and basically with all the different business lines you have a very keen insight into the economy across all the geographies here. When you look at sort of the rebound that we've seen post pandemic whether it's in New York or even some of the down south and some of those markets here, I mean what are you actually hearing from your clients, the people that you're talking to about where they're doing business and more importantly are they comfortable right now being able to do business?
So, I would say what you hear from them and what they're doing aren't the same things. People are nervous. They read the newspapers, they watch TV, they see what's going on in other parts of the world. They're concerned about AI. And so those are things that are very much on their mind. But when you look at what they're doing, when you look at consumers, they're spending more year-over-year. Their delinquencies are down. They're saving more. They're doing really really well. When you talk to smaller companies across the country, again, they're nervous. They're concerned about how they should be planning for the future, but they're in really great financial condition.
Are you surprised by that? I mean, given how persistent inflation has been, and just over the last 3 weeks, you've seen oil prices spike back up 30%, gasoline prices $4 a gallon, mortgage rates 6.5%. So, does it surprise you to see that economic resiliency?
I yes and no. I think if you would have laid those things out you would have said, well, would you have as strong an environment today? You'd say probably not, but the fact is employment is still strong. Wages at least for our clients are growing faster than inflation, and that's going to be the most important driver of how the consumer performs. Now, that's not to say that that's going to last forever, but we do continue to see that and so that's what's going to drive the results.
