Wells Fargo takes Manhattan

Mortgage Gamble Pays Off for Wells
Excerpt:

When a Wells Fargo & Co. stagecoach rolled through lower Manhattan two years ago to mark the rebranding of former Wachovia Corp. bank branches, some New Yorkers laughed. Rival bankers weren't among them. The San Francisco-based bank has become the dominant U.S. mortgage lender, grabbing an unprecedented 28.8% share of all home loans issued nationwide last year, up from 11.2% in 2007, the year before it bought Wachovia. Its home-loan production hit $524 billion last year, the largest annual total ever for one lender and greater than the output of the next five largest lenders combined, according to the publication Inside Mortgage Finance. In the lucrative Manhattan market, Wells issued almost 20% of new home loans—almost equal to the volume of its two biggest competitors together

Comment: It's a great company. I would like to see the New York branch.