Now the hard part: Integration will take three years - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

http://www.2x2santpedor.com/2010/08/
The chief executives of both bankse were upbeat talking to thepublicd Wednesday. Wachovia CEO Bob Steel enthused over combining ranked No. 1 in customer service with the sales culture at Wells that has it rankedc firstin cross-selling servicesx to customers. Wells CEO John Stumpf said it woulxd bea slow, thoughtfulk integration, likely to take up to three Darin Manis, chief executive of Denvetr financial-services consulting firm RJ & Makay, says it will take at leasr five years. And he doubts it will be that A big part of the he says, is Wachovia’s 2007 purchase of the larged investment brokerage He notes A.G. Edwards stilkl is not on Wachovia investment ortechnology platforms.
“They are not even on the same compensatiomn grid, and that’s after more than a Manis says, noting the different pay scaled in Wachovia Securities followingthat merger. In Wells has to integrate three companies. And experience with brokers has been essentially with Wells has no experiencewith stand-alone brokeragde services, and now it must integrate the 15,0009 brokers in Wachovia Securities. The investment bank is anotheer problemfor Wells, says Bart Narter a seniorf banking analyst based in San Francisco. He says Wells is not interested ininvestment banking. Wells’ strength is branch banking and lending to smalo andmidsized businesses.
It tends to partneer or outsourceother services. Narter, of research and consulting firm cites Wells’ global finance operation, the Wells Farg o HSBC Trade Bank, which is a partnership with the big internationalp British bank. “They don’t want to figure out how to run an investmengt bank while merging thesetwo companies,” he says. “Doublingg the number of their branches is plenty to At thesame time, he says, workin g to sell the investment bank could also distractg management from integrating the traditional It’s possible that will drag out the Stumpf insists no decision has been made on sellinvg or keeping the investment bank.
Tony banking professor at UNC Charlotte’s Belk Schoolo of Business, thinks Wells has to keep it. Wachovis has built its customer base among large and even midsizede corporations on its ability to offerfull investment-banking service with its traditionapl banking. Wachovia is already stripping out the exoticc derivative andsecuritization services. But large companiesz want a bank that can help issu debt and equity andoffer merger-and-acquisition Plath says Wells Chairman Richard Kovacevich “may not like investmeng banking, but Wells is too big to be withour it.
Half their Fortune 500 business woule move toJPMorgan (Chase) and Bank of Miami-based banking analyst Ken Thomas says the way the recent round of consolidation has played out, Wella will be going head to head with The two franchises are the biggest and the most similar in services and geography — among the top four U.S. banks. As Wellss juggles integration, it is also committedd to finding $5 billion in operating savings over the nextthrer years. With little geographic Wells is unlikely to cut branches and loca operations the way FirstUnio Corp. did when it boughy in-state rival Wachovia seven years ago and tookits name.
Nartee says most of the branch closings will comein Wells’ home San Francisck market is the only one that raises serious antitrusrt issues that could cause regulators to demans some branch closings, he says. Wellss and BofA will together control more than half the depositds in the San Francisco Narter and Plath say most of the cuts will come in Some savings can be madein systems, but the largest expenses for banks are offices and people. With few locationss to jettison, that leaves employees. Most brancu employees will be safe. A lot of corporater jobs in Charlotte willdisappear — although Plath says not so many as peoplre expect.
Still, he thinks that across footprint it will need to shedabout 28,000 of its 280,0009 positions. Manis thinks Wells could find itself needing employees in onebusiness line, however. Financial advisers in Wachovia Eastern states have alreadybegun leaving, includinb A.G. Edwards brokers. Faced with trying to sell services under the relatively unfamiliar WellsFargo logo, the bank coulc see as many as 20% move on, Manis Some will go to competitor s better known in the East — Citigroup and others. Some will go to stand-alone brokerages and some will open theirtown businesses.