• Looking forward: Wells Fargo is projecting $50 billion in 2026 net interest income, a 5% increase over the 2025 result.
• Expert quote: "The cash flow, the spending levels, the credit performance has all been quite good so far." — CFO Mike Santomassimo commenting on Wells' consumer results
• Supporting data: Wells total assets reached $2.14 trillion on Dec. 31. They've increased about 11% since June, when regulators terminated a $1.95 trillion asset cap. 

Wells Fargo reported strong results in its wealth and consumer-banking business lines as its $5.4 billion profit for the three months ending Dec. 31 finished 5.5% higher than the comparable 2024 result.

For all of 2025, the San Francisco-based Wells reported net income totaling $21.3 billion, up 7% over 2024.

Though Wells' fourth-quarter earnings were crimped by $612 million in severance costs, the company is entering 2026 "in a position of strength," CEO Charlie Scharf said in a press release.

Scharf touted growth across the company, but the results were most prominent in the wealth and consumer-banking spaces. Auto originations more than doubled to $10.2 billion compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, while credit-card purchase volume jumped 10% to $49.7 billion. At the same time, revenue from wealth and investment management reached $4.3 billion, up 10% year-over-year.

"People are very active," Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo said Wednesday on a conference call with reporters. "The cash flow, the spending levels, the credit performance has all been quite good so far. There's no reason to think that won't continue, at least as we look into the early part of 2026."

Wells reported $600 billion in total commercial loans at Dec. 31, up 12% from the same period in 2024. Total loans were $986 billion, representing a 8% increase. "We saw the pace of loan growth pick up for the first time in a while," Santomassimo said.

Deposits totaled $1.43 billion at Dec. 31, increasing 4% year-over-year as Wells rid itself of the regulatory guard rails that had limited overall balance-sheet growth. Prior to June, operating under a regulatory asset cap, Wells was unable to accept large deposits from many corporate and middle-market clients, Scharf noted at an investor conference in December. "We pushed a lot of that outside of Wells Fargo over the past bunch of years, [but] we can now compete on a much more level playing field," Scharf said.

Wells kept operating costs in check, with noninterest expense declining $174 million, or 1%, compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. At $1.05 billion, net chargeoffs were up 11% from the third quarter of 2025, but down 14% from year-end 2024. Assets totaled $2.15 trillion at Dec. 31.

Wells is targeting $50 billion in net interest income for all of 2025, up 5% over the 2025 total of $47.5 billion. Wells is also forecasting $55.7 billion in full-year 2026 operating expenses, up 1.6% from the $54.6 billion reported for 2025.

Wells' solid results closed out a year that saw the banking giant freed from a long-running cap imposed by regulators in the wake of its disastrous fake-accounts scandal that restricted assets to $1.95 trillion.

Though business remained slow in the summer, even in the absence of regulatory shackles, it picked up markedly as 2025 progressed. In October, the company raised its medium-term return-on-tangible-common-equity target to 17-18% from its previous 15% guidance. And speaking at an investor conference in December, Scarf indicated the momentum had continued, with most consumer business lines, except mortgage banking, benefitting from increased activity.

Wells received another boost Monday, when employees at a Connecticut branch voted against forming a union.