Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational bank headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William Fargo to provide express delivery and banking services to the American West during the gold rush era. It grew into one of the largest banks in the United States, particularly after its 1998 merger with the Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation, which took the Wells Fargo name, and its 2008 acquisition of Wachovia during the financial crisis, though it has since faced repeated regulatory penalties over a scandal in which employees opened millions of unauthorized customer accounts.