By Arasu Kannagi Basil and Nivedita Balu
Feb 10 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo expects loans to grow this year, betting on credit cards and autos while momentum in mortgages is expected to pick up after declines over time, Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo said on Tuesday.
"On the card side, we're seeing good growth there. It's been pretty consistent now for a while. It's really driven by the newer products that we've launched over the last three or four years," Santomassimo said at the UBS Financial
Services Conference.
Growth in the credit card business is expected to continue this year as Wells Fargo rolls out more new products focused on some of its wealth management clients and other pockets, Santomassimo said.
The bank is reshaping its growth strategy, solely depending on organic growth, after the U.S. Federal Reserve removed a $1.95 trillion asset cap in June, removing a major penalty for the bank's fake accounts scandal and opening the door to growth.
With the asset cap lifted, the bank is pushing ahead on long-planned balance sheet expansion, while credit quality stays solid and new investments in cards, auto lending and investment banking begin to scale.
On the auto side, Santomassimo said the business was seeing good growth in the past few quarters due to the preferred financing partnership Wells Fargo has with Volkswagen and Audi in the United States.
"We're really liking the momentum that we have there. So we should expect to see some growth you know continue overall," Santomassimo said.
The auto business had returned to growth in 2025 on the back of stronger origination volumes and growth in loan balances.
The decline in its mortgage business is also expected to moderate and be relatively flat throughout the year, Santomassimo said.
Meanwhile, activity levels and spend across debit and credit has remained strong at the start of the year, Santomassimo said, adding that its sets up the bank for a good year on the consumer side.
"Credit performance is still very good. We're not seeing signs of any systemic deterioration at all across the consumer or the commercial portfolios," Santomassimo said.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Nivedita Balu in TorontoEditing by Nick Zieminski)
