After years of regulatory time-outs and punishing asset caps, Wells Fargo is finally having some fun.
The lender is hoping a hiring spree of elite dealmakers can help it shed the baggage of past retail banking scandals and compete with Wall Street’s investment-banking heavyweights.
“We’ve hired roughly 100 or so senior folks across the investment bank,” CFO Mike Santomassimo told investors at a conference hosted by UBS in Miami on Tuesday, noting that the firm’s ultimate aim is to become one of the industry’s “top five” M&A advisors.
It’s a lofty aspiration, but data suggests its turnaround strategy is working. LSEG found that the bank had jumped from 17th rank on the data provider’s league table for global M&A in 2024 to 9th in 2025. In just 12 months, the bank nearly tripled its deal volume, advising on $431 billion in transactions, up from $155 billion the year prior, LSEG found.
The firm flexed its new corporate dealmaking muscle in December, when it served as a co-advisor on Netflix’s announced $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, providing a record $29.5 billion bridge loan commitment to back the bid. (The deal has recently turned into a high-stakes bidding war following a superior unsolicited offer from Paramount Global.)
To fuel its rise in the rankings, Wells has recruited a series of top dealmakers. JPMorgan banker Fernando Rivas left his longtime professional home in 2024 to run the franchise. Other star dealmakers have come from firms including Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.
The firm has also quietly flooded local markets with hundreds of commercial bankers — specifically targeting the healthcare and technology sectors — to cultivate more entry points into corporate America’s biggest deals. “We feel like we can compete with anybody,” Santomassimo said.
“We’re continuing to add people in different subsectors across the main industry groups,” he added, “and we’ve been super pleased with all of the folks we’ve been able to recruit from really all over the place.”
The efficiency engine
Wells’ hiring for front-office talent comes amid a period of intense competition for the financial services industry, which industry executives have acknowledged has a commensurate impact on pay.
Wells may be freeing up the financial capacity to boost its investment bank’s ranks by thinning out an army of back-office workers. Since 2020, the bank has slashed its head count by roughly 70,000 roles — a 22-quarter streak of reductions that has taken the workforce from 275,000 when CEO Charlie Scharf took over, to about 205,000 today.
The firm sees long-term potential to trim head count through technology. While Santomassimo played down the immediate impact of AI on Tuesday, calling it a “coming years” benefit, Scharf has been more blunt in his remarks. He’s previously warned that corporate leaders need to get honest about inevitable cuts to their workforces, while touting AI’s benefits for his own software engineers’ productivity.
The bets Wells is making are aimed at not just nipping at Wall Street’s heels — but claiming some of its most coveted business. As Santomassimo added at the Tuesday conference: “The goal is to continue to see more progress. And I think the most valuable way you see that progress is through market share and wallet increases.”
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