After the war, the REA was privatized and continued service until 1975. ĭuring the First World War, the United States government nationalized Wells Fargo's express business into a federal agency known as the US Railway Express Agency (REA). In 1905, Wells Fargo separated its banking and express operations, and Wells Fargo's bank merged with the Nevada National Bank to form the Wells Fargo Nevada National Bank. In 1872, Lloyd Tevis, a friend of the Central Pacific 'Big Four' and holder of rights to operate an express service over the Transcontinental Railroad, became president of the company after acquiring a large stake, a position he held until 1892. Wells Fargo then operated the western portion of the Pony Express. This caused Overland to default on its debts to Wells Fargo, allowing Wells Fargo to take control of the mail route. In 1860, Congress failed to pass the annual Post Office appropriation bill leaving the Post Office unable to pay Overland Mail Company. It was also the primary lender of Butterfield Overland Mail Company, which ran a 2,757-mile route through the Southwest to San Francisco and was nicknamed the 'Butterfield Line' after the name of the company's president John Butterfield. American Express was not interested in serving California.īy the end of the California Gold Rush, Wells Fargo was a dominant express and banking organization in the West, making large shipments of gold and delivering mail and supplies. Its earliest and most significant tasks included transporting gold from the Philadelphia Mint and 'express' mail delivery that was faster and less expensive than U.S. Fargo, who founded American Express along with John Butterfield, formed Wells Fargo & Company in 1852 to provide 'express' and banking services to California, which was growing rapidly due to the California Gold Rush. Subsequently, in 2023, prison sentencing took place for employee-directed money laundering and funneling cash illegally to Mexico through the creation of fictitious accounts. In March 2023, Wells Fargo blamed a technical glitch for misstating the balances of customers' accounts, in many cases incorrectly deeming the customers as having a negative bank balance. levied a $3.7 billion loan management fine upon Wells Fargo. Bloomberg Businessweek reported in March 2022 that Wells Fargo was the only major lender in 2020 to reject more home refinancing applications from Black applicants than it approved.

In September 2021, Wells Fargo incurred further fines from the United States Justice Department charging fraudulent behavior by the bank against foreign-exchange currency trading customers. On February 2, 2018, account fraud by the bank resulted in the Federal Reserve barring Wells Fargo from growing its nearly $2 trillion-asset base any further until the company fixed its internal problems to the satisfaction of the Federal Reserve. The company has been the subject of several investigations by regulators. Wells Fargo is ranked 41st on the Fortune 500 list of the largest companies in the U.S. It is one of the most valuable bank brands. It is the fourth largest bank in the United States by total assets and is also one of the largest as ranked by bank deposits and market capitalization. federal courts as a citizen of South Dakota). The firm's primary subsidiary is Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., a national bank that designates its Sioux Falls, South Dakota site as its main office (and is therefore treated by most U.S. Wells Fargo became a coast-to-coast bank with the 2008 acquisition of Charlotte-based Wachovia. At the same time, its banking subsidiary merged with Wells Fargo's Sioux Falls-based banking subsidiary. While Norwest was the nominal survivor, the merged company took the better-known Wells Fargo name and moved to Wells Fargo's hub in San Francisco. Wells Fargo, in its present form, is a result of a merger between the original Wells Fargo & Company and Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998. It is a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board and is considered one of the ' Big Four Banks' in the United States, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence.

$2 stamp and 10 cents stamped envelope with Pony Express cancellation, carried from San Francisco to New York City in 12 days, during June 1861

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