Banking

Goodbye Citigroup, Hello Wells Fargo?

October 3, 2008

Well, well.  Just a few days ago, it was announced that Citigroup was going to buy my bank, Wachovia.  Now, however, it looks like Wells Fargo will be buying Wachovia, not Citigroup.

As a customer, the following quote from Yahoo Finance makes me feel a little better about the new deal –

While Wells Fargo has logged three straight quarters of profit declines, the bank has been weathering one of the nation’s worst credit crises much better than most of its competitors, in part because it had less exposure to the subprime mortgages whose failure undermined the financial sector. (This quote has been removed from the original Yahoo Finance article.  See note at the bottom of this post.)

As a tax payer, it’s great to see that this deal will go through without government funding or FDIC funding.  Again, from Yahoo Finance –

The Citigroup deal would have been done with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but the Wells Fargo deal for Wachovia will be done without it. (This quote has been removed from the original Yahoo Finance article.  See note at the bottom of this post.)

This might not be the end of the Wachovia saga, but I feel much better than I did a few days ago.

Edit – Not one minute after I wrote this post, the information from Yahoo Finance changed.  It looks like Citigroup is upset about this deal and is claiming that it has an exclusive agreement with Wachovia.  Stay tuned.

2 thoughts on “Goodbye Citigroup, Hello Wells Fargo?”

  1. I gave up on the large banks long ago. My experience (and that of those I know) is full of horrible service. The banks seem convinced customers are just suckers to be swindled if they are stupid enough to fall for our schemes. I have been much happier with Credit Unions. Small banks have also been good, but they constantly get bought out by the large horrible banks.

  2. This was a great post! There is so much turbulence in the market today, and people need peace of mind more than ever. I wanted to offer your readers a link to another blogger who is doing great work. He writes about our ‘childhood money messages’ and how the best approach to stability in today’s market is to resist letting these emotions control our buying/selling habits. It is really fascinating work, and something you should all check out. His name is Spencer Sherman, and you can view his blog at http://www.curemoneymadness.com/blog.

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