Wells Fargo stays on message point

One way to rebut rumors is for top executives to stay slavishly on point when they speak to the media. Wells Fargo seems to be doing just that. CEO John Stumpf repeated to the Financial Times that the big San Francisco bank, which has fared well during the credit crisis, is not interested in a transformational-type deal. "Not impossible but highly unlikely," he said. So the message to the market is to not link the bank to a big takeover of a troubled bank, like Wachovia. Wells Fargo, however, is interested in wealth management and insurance distribution companies. If there's one financial services industry that has fared well in the credit crunch, it's wealth management. Barclays also said that it was interested in such companies.  

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article

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