Can Experience of Wells Fargo’s Board of Directors Help to Steer the Bank Away from Future Losses?

The subprime mortgage crises continued to pummel the financial sector as Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks, announced $1.4 billion in fourth-quarter losses. 

Nevertheless, in a sign that the markets might have already become battle-hardened to the subprime assaults on earnings, Wells Fargo’s stock price remained largely unaffected by the announcement.  In fact,  the price was up slightly.  Although the stock opened on the NYSE at $30.09, it was trading at $31.22 at 1:35pm ET (see the BloggingStocks article by Michael Fowlkes).

“By focusing on our core customers, Wells Fargo has largely avoided many of the credit and capital market problem areas in the industry. We did not offer consumer loan products that were inconsistent with our responsible lending practices," said Wells Fargo CFO Howard Atkins in a press release.

"Because of our conservatism, we lost market share in the subprime segment the past three years and we’re glad we did," he added.

However, there remains a question for investors to now ponder: Is Wells Fargo likely to chart a prudent course in the future?

To help answer that question, NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map of the bank’s Board of Directors in order to illustrate their level of business experience and corporate involvement.

The Knowledge Map demonstrates a high degree of both.  For example, aside from having a distinguished career in business, Chairman of the Board Richard M. Kovacevich also serves as a Director for Cisco Systems, Inc, Target Corp and Cargill, Inc.

The following Directors at Wells Fargo are also notable for their corporate involvement:

Director Enrique Hernandez also serves as the CEO/Chairman for Inter-Con Security Systems, Inc and as a Director for McDonald’s Corp and the Tribune Co; Director John S. Chen is the CEO/Chairman of Sybase, Inc; and Stephen W. Sanger is the CEO/Chairman of General Mills, Inc and serves on the board of Target Corp.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).

Click here or copy this link into your Internet Explorer browser for an interactive version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map: http://nv.intellectspace.com/ispace/GuestMonitor.aspx?id=9d053ab2-f923-44a5-8fa2-93e5752d800f