Wells Fargo earnings rise to $US5.6bn
Wells Fargo has reported higher earnings on better credit quality as increases in industrial and commercial loans offset declines in many home-lending categories.
Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender, said first-quarter earnings were $US5.6 billion ($A5.97 billion), up 14 per cent on the year-ago quarter.
"Our solid first-quarter results again demonstrated the ability of our diversified business model to perform for shareholders," chief executive John Stumpf said in a statement on Friday.
"First-quarter 2014 earnings were another record for our company and capital levels continued to strengthen."
The San Francisco-based lender continued to notch better results because of improving credit quality. Credit losses were $US825 million in the January-March quarter, compared with $US1.4 billion a year ago.
The improvement comes as more consumers pay bills on time and the bank's stash of nonperforming assets diminishes.
Total loans at Wells Fargo stood at $US826.4 billion, up $US4.2 billion from the prior year. Improving categories included commercial and industrial and commercial real estate.
But Wells Fargo reported mortgage originations worth $US36 million, down $US67 million from the year-ago level. The company also had fewer mortgage applications and a smaller application pipeline.
The results translated into $US1.05 per share, better than the 97 US cents forecast by Wall Street analysts. Revenues slipped from $US21.26 billion to $US20.63 billion. Analysts had forecast revenues of $US20.6 billion.
Shares of Wells Fargo rose 0.3 per cent to $US47.83 in pre-market trading.
