US banking giant Wells Fargo reported strong profits for 2009 following its integration of smaller rival Wachovia and repayment of a $25 billion taxpayer bailout.
Wells Fargo posted net income of $2.82 billion in the fourth quarter on record revenue of $22.7 billion, up an annualised 4% from the third quarter. For the full year, Wells Fargo said it had net profit of $7.99 billion on record revenue of $88.7 billion.
The financial results partly reflected the California-based bank's takeover of Wachovia in December 2008, making Wells Fargo the fourth-largest bank by assets in the US.
The bank said it had $1.2 trillion in assets at the end of 2009. For shareholders, fourth-quarter income was $394m, mainly due to the aid repayment and dividends under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP).
Earnings per share of eight cents in the fourth quarter surprised most analysts, who on average had forecast a net loss of one cent.
The bank announced in December it had repaid the US Treasury's $25 billion in preferred shares purchased under the TARP rescue and paid a dividend of $131.9m.
The bank said that average checking and savings deposits rose to $661 billion in the fourth quarter, a 20% increase from the prior quarter.
The final three months of the year showed 'continued signs of a positive turn in credit quality' and almost all major loan categories had relatively flat or declining losses, with the exception of commercial property, the bank said.
'For the fourth quarter of 2009 and for the full year, we delivered significant value for our customers, communities, shareholders and country,' said John Stumpf, chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo.
Stumpf said the merger with Wachovia, which essentially doubled the size of Wells Fargo, 'has already generated tremendous synergies.'
