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Wells is looking for a senior dealmaker who can help the bank
win roles on high-profile transactions in which it has not
historically been a part, the sources said.
Wells, based in San Francisco, has its East Coast headquarters
in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is where Laughlin has been
based and where many of its bankers sit - rather than in New
York, the hub of Wall Street banking.
"John Laughlin's appointment to vice chairman recognizes the key
role he played in leading a fivefold increase in our M&A
business," said Rob Engel, head of investment banking and
capital markets at Wells Fargo.
Wells has seen its stock price and return on equity rewarded for
focusing on wealth management and Main Street lending, and this
latest move reflects a desire to build out its investment
banking franchise.
Although the bank is consistently ranked as one of the top
lenders to corporate America, it has lagged in traditional
investment banking areas like financial advisory and capital
markets.
The bank posted about $2 billion in U.S. investment banking fees
in 2015, according to Thomson Reuters data, ranking it eighth
among peers. JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N>, Bank of America Corp <BAC.N>
and Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> generated fees nearly double
that of Wells.
Wells captured a 4.7 percent share of U.S investment banking
fees, and has climbed less than 1 percent since 2008, when it
acquired Wachovia to build up its banking business. The bank did
not crack the Top 20 for advising on announced U.S. mergers and
acquisitions last year.
Rival bank executives are convinced Wells may soon make further
inroads into investment banking.
"Wells Fargo is very actively, very aggressively, and very
successfully building its U.S. investment bank," JPMorgan Chief
Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told Bloomberg in March. Dimon
said that for Wells to remain competitive, it will need to
expand overseas, which may require buying another bank.
Wells, however, has tended to downplay its investment banking
ambitions, describing it as one more way to serve corporate
customers.
The more modest view has won favor with investors, who have
rewarded Wells with a higher price-to-book value than banks such
as JPMorgan. Wells trades at 1.48 times book value, compared
with JPMorgan's 1.03 times book.
(Reporting by Olivia Oran and Greg Roumeliotis in New York;
Additional reporting by Dan Freed in New York; Editing by
Jeffrey Benkoe)
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