Wells Fargo IB experiences
Wondering if anyone has experiences they can share related to Wells Fargo IB. I'm a current summer intern looking to lateral into their CIB program, and wanted to hear what other people have to say about it. Taking SIE before I apply and CFA level 1 before the end of the year. All experiences welcome, Wells isn't covered as in-depth on here as some of the other major banks so I'm scrounging for quality info.
*Before 200 jaded IB washouts blow this thread up, I promise I've read all the threads about IB recruiting so I ask that we keep this on the constructive side.
Bump
Had a friend there who left, said it was ridiculously toxic (don’t know group) and people there were unpleasant. They’d just left when they told me
Was this for the Charlotte or NYC office? Just got an offer recently so weighing if I want to accept and go through the group placement gamble.
NYC
Your experience may differ a lot depending on which group you go.
WF is already a top player in Investment grade DCM, Real Estate Syndicated Finance, Asset backed finance, Real Estate Capital markets, and they are rapidly growing in ECM and Leveraged Finance.
In M&A and advisory services they are still way behind top BB and Elite boutiques, it is difficult to see them as leading advisors in the top deals, however WF has been growing in both number of deals and average deal size over the past years.
Top groups right now are Energy & Power, REGAL, FIG, and Real Estate. From what I see in recruiting, WF is focusing now on expanding their Healthcare and TMT coverage groups. One thing to notice is that compared to the rest of BB, WF is heavily concentrated in the US market, its international footprint is very limited although they have a strong S&T and debt team in London, and they are poaching top MDs to expand their activity overseas.
Another thing to notice is that CIB is split between NY, SF and Charlotte (main office), in terms of culture it is difficult to say, the bank is huge, so culture and WLB may differ a lot between teams and offices. The bank culture has a terrible stint due to the recent scandals, but CIB had nothing to do with that, and overall most people I deal with are really nice and professional.
Compared to other banks, WF relies much more on their commercial and retail practice, they are still very new in Investment Banking (they got in the business after the acquisition of Wachovia), and in just 14 years they have grown a lot (they are the 8th bank in IB fees in the US). The Bank aims to keep growing their CIB and get closer to its competitors (Citi, JPM, and BofA), and they have a very powerful balance sheet to keep growing.
People over here see WF as a shitty place to be, and although it does not have the brand name of Goldman or the track record of JP Morgan, Wells Fargo is clearly on the path to become a top player in IB in the future.
Few thing that differs during my time there:
International expansion isn’t on the radar for IB. They are growing their commercial banking presence internationally but not IB.
Credit appetite is still very conservative but top management does realize that things need to change in order to further penetrate the sponsor market. This hurts their lev fin practice obviously, but lev fin is still one of their strongest group given that they are a top ABL shop.
Seems like a great place for career bankers in the south, because they tends to promote within. And, many IB folks move on to senior management role for other part of the bank, if climbing up the ladders is something you want to do.
PE exits are still in MM. Something like H.I.G or Sun Capital is probably the best you get.
Great info. What groups do u recommend targeting for summer analyst? Hoping for nyc
Did my SA at WF Charlotte and will say their culture was great. Maybe because it’s more lax in the south but the people in Charlotte were great. Lateraled and will say I am missing the culture a bit.
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