The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
The first Wells Fargo "banking store" has opened in Hampton Roads.
The new bank branch, which still carries the Wachovia Bank name, is in the Wells Fargo Center on Monticello Avenue in downtown Norfolk.
It replaces Wachovia's former downtown branch in the World Trade Center on Main Street.
Bank and city officials gathered Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the opening of the store and the move of Wachovia's and Wells Fargo's local leadership into offices in the 22-story tower.
"This is a major milestone in this project," said Marino Santarelli, Wachovia's Southside Hampton Roads market executive.
The store's opening is the second visible step in the slow absorption of Wachovia into Wells Fargo since the acquisition at the end of 2008.
The bank has converted all 83 of its automated teller machines in the region to those used by Wells Fargo.
The new branch is based on the Wells Fargo model, Santarelli said. It's larger, with more workers to help customers. Like most Wells Fargo stores, it features a mural of the area, this one of Norfolk, he said.
The bank, Santarelli said, already operates under a Wells Fargo structure. That's one reason all the local leaders of various Wachovia and Wells Fargo units - consumer and commercial banking, securities, insurance and so on - have been brought together in new offices on the 11th and 12th floors of the Wells Fargo Center, which opened this summer, he said.
The conversion of Wachovia to Wells Fargo has been migrating from the West Coast to the East. Just this past week, it was completed in Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi, Santarelli said.
Yet, in Virginia, the Wachovia name won't go away until the second half of 2011 when the conversion is completed for its 55 banking stores in Hampton Roads, Santarelli said.
"Then, we'll put the name at the top of the building," he said of the office tower.
Christopher Dinsmore, (757) 446-2271, chris.dinsmore@pilotonline.com
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no surprise here
Of course all these big bank companies are doing great and expanding and replacing old buildings and equipment. they got bailed out at the tax payer expense.and the working man is left to starve to death. the city and bank representatives will meet today and eat drink and be marry at the tax payers expense of course. maybe a free country club golf lesson or membership at our expense.or a free cell phone or better yet 12 years of free paychecks.the list goes on.no accountability to be found in any city in Hampton roads how many of the convicted felons you have created because of driving violations in Virginia will this bank hire. ha! no jobs created here.what is the celebration all about??
for the bail out crowd. . .
A few facts get lost in your bail out rant:
1) Wells Fargo bought Wachovia and took on all of its bad loans, when the only other option likely would have led to and FDIC takeover of Wachovia, which would have cost taxpayers many billions due to the FDIC reserve funds being wiped out and then some in making Wachovia depositors whole. Wells bought Wachovia for a song, good for them, but in doing so they also saved the US taxpayer billions of dollars.
2) Wells Fargo is a survivor (and Wachovia is not) because of it's discipline around sound lending practices (and Wachovia's lack thereof). Having a strong, healthy, large bank is good for the region.
3) As one of the largest banks in the country, Wells Fargo took TARP money at the "request" of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the Secretary of the Treasury. Wells Fargo, unlike TowneBank, Monarch, Bank of Hampton Roads, Heritage, Farmers Bank and others, never asked for the money. Also, unlike TowneBank and and Bank of Hampton Roads, they paid it back long ago, with interest, at zero cost to taxpayers.
4) Wells Fargo doesn't own a nice, shiny new building. They are a tenant that leases two floors of a 22 stor
read again old school 93
my rant was toward all banks in general.and more toward these cities that are mismanaged and like to spend a lot of money on parties and entertainment at the tax payers expense because they think they have done something great.I agree any job created even one job is a step in the right direction.but to say that wells Fargo is not as guilty as any other bank for making loans that we all knew at the time people could not afford is wrong.as you stated they took money to survive.and for the people that think it was not as much fault of the banks. as it is for the people taking the loans is also wrong.It was a scam to entice inexperienced home buyers. go ahead and look up the mastermind behind these loans you will see he took his money and ran just before the bottom fell out. and better yet see who the legal firm and who the attorney was he used to cover his butt while masterminding all this.If you don't already know it might surprise you.
If Wells Fargo was as guilty
If Wells Fargo was as guilty as others, why are they standing strong while hundreds have failed and others (Bank of America, Citi) continue to struggle? If they needed TARP money to survive, why did they offer to pay it back three months later? They took the money, as did all of the original ten banks, at the request of the government to stabilize the system and ease the panic. The sound banks among this group - Wells, JP Morgan, BB&T, and a couple of others, told congress they would pay it back immediately if only the administration would let them. The ones who really needed it are the ones that still owe the money. Wells Fargo didn't offer option-ARM, no-doc, LIAR loans, etc. They stuck to their principles. That is why they are a survivor, when so many others have failed, and that is why they, and their new building are good for all of us in Hampton Roads.
Perhaps you'd be happier if
Perhaps you'd be happier if Wells and BB&T were sucking wind, laying off employees, and calling perfectly good loans because they needed the cash; like so many other banks, large and small, in our market. This would only make it even harder for regular people and businesses to borrow money. But perhaps you would then be pleased.
As for the mastermind and his attorney, please enlighten me. There were many, many people who profited from the mortgage crisis, and many more that continue to. The one who made the most money, John Paulson, wasn't the mastermind of anything, but was simply the guy that realized how best to profit from mortgage bonds falling in value, and convinced a lot of folks to invest their money in his idea.
4) Wells Fargo doesn't own a
4) Wells Fargo doesn't own a nice, shiny new building. They are a tenant that leases two floors of a 22 story building, due to a lease that was sign in 2007 by Wachovia. So what? This building is the only large construction project I know of going on in the area, and it is a huge success. Even with the residential floors left blank for now, the building already has enough lease income to cover it's mortgage and expenses. And construction work (and local jobs) continue at the retail space adjacent to the building. Why would a friend of the working man complain about something so good for our local economy?
It is funny how people THINK
It is funny how people THINK this is what goes on a local bank level. Trust someone who has inside knowledge:
1. They don't get free anything. No cell phones, no computers, no cars, ect...They get a pen and computer from eons ago.
2. The bank isn't really hiring a lot of people. They have a great and fantastic hiring process that is hard to get through. I think there are three interviews you have to go for and before you can even get an interview hired a practice test which LITERALLY a lot of people fail.
True, the banks shouldnt
True, the banks shouldnt have written the loans to people that couldnt or wouldn't pay them back, but the people that took them should be held accountable as well. They took the money and then didnt pay their bills. Thats what sunk the banks and required them to be bailed out. Those folks are just as guilty as shafting the working man and the American taxpayer as the banks are.
This is very true. I am
This is very true.
I am with EVERYONE on the banks shouldn't have given out these loans, but people know how much they can afford and what they can't. When I was offered a $300,000 home loan a year before this all happened I said, "Umm...I know I couldn't afford that." And it's true! So these people who couldn't pay for their homes have to take some responsibility in this.
I feel worse for the people who are renting the homes that are getting foreclosed on.
Capitalism and American Politics
One might conclude that Capitalism is far from perfect, as is American Politics.