WFCWells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo is a retail and mortgage bank that spent years operating under a regulatory cap on asset growth.

A classic banking model: deposits from households and small businesses, mortgages, auto loans, cards and commercial lending. Net interest income drives results, and the mortgage arm adds cyclicality — when mortgages are expensive, both origination and servicing volumes fall.

A separate and defining part of the story is the aftermath of the unauthorised-accounts scandal: the regulator capped the bank's assets for years. That ceiling meant growth could come only from efficiency, not volume, and its removal is read by the market as a distinct valuation event.

The strategy of recent years is cost reduction, exiting non-core lines and building fee income. The risks are the sector's usual ones: the credit cycle, commercial real estate in the book, and capital requirements. The bank pays a dividend and buys back stock.