Wells Fargo Looking More and More Like The Old Citigroup Model (WFC, WB, C)

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 28, 9:41AM EDT · Published Oct 13, 11:52AM EDT

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Wells_fargo_logo Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is the latest of the banking giants to look like the old Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) business model. This became the case with the acquisition of Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) out from under Citi’s, but today Wells Fargo is making another acquisition. The company’s Wells Fargo Insurance Services announced that it has acquired New Jersey-based EMAR Group, one of the nation’s largest independently owned commercial insurance agencies with offices in New Jersyey, New York, and Florida.

This insurance company has been around since 1971 and serves middlemarket and upper middle market clients as well as risk managementcustomers. EMAR works with businesses in transportation, construction,real estate, financial institutions, and has access to specialty marketprograms including the limousine services and restaurant industries.

This will mark a key expansion for Wells Fargo on the East Coast. Thecompany has noted its recent acquisition of Herder-Terricone Associatesin Three Bridges, New Jersey, and it noted the expansion of Wells Fargo RegionalCommercial Banking in the tri-state region.

Most people think of Wells Fargo as a depository institution. Yet itclaims to be the fifth-largest insurance company in the world with 170 offices in 27 states and some 7,200 insurance professionals.It also notes $11.5 billion of risk premiums in in property, casualty,benefits, international, personal lines and life products.

If Citigroup could somehow take back its spin-off of Travelers, it would look more and more like the oldfinancial supermarket model it has been criticized about for theentire decade.

Now with the brokerage becoming bank holdingcompanies, who would have ever guessed that Sandy Weill’s model wouldhave ended up being the norm. The difference here is that Wells Fargo is one of the healthiest banks in the country.

Jon C. Ogg
October 13, 2008

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.