Wells Fargo Creates Dedicated Homebuilder Banking Group

Team to seek new opportunities as homebuilder markets recover

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) today announced that it has formed a Homebuilder Banking team to serve the needs of its residential developer clients on the East Coast, Texas, and Midwest. The team is comprised of 14 bankers located across the country and will report to Bird Anderson. The team will also serve as a centralized resource on the industry for Wells Fargo’s entire Commercial Real Estate business. Wells Fargo’s existing homebuilder relationships in the West will continue to be served by their local coverage teams.

“We’re starting to see some modest signs of increased demand in the homebuilding sector in many markets. Our dedicated banking team is ready to help satisfy our homebuilder clients’ financial needs as the market begins its recovery.”

The Homebuilder Banking team will provide a comprehensive suite of financial solutions including project and corporate financing facilities, and a referral network to treasury management, insurance, mortgage and capital markets products. In addition to serving the financial needs of its existing customers, the new team will seek to identify and build relationships with additional high quality homebuilders throughout its coverage area.

“The homebuilder community has unique needs,” said Anderson. “We believe our customers will benefit by having a group of experienced and dedicated bankers devoted specifically to this industry,” said Anderson. “We’re starting to see some modest signs of increased demand in the homebuilding sector in many markets. Our dedicated banking team is ready to help satisfy our homebuilder clients’ financial needs as the market begins its recovery.”

Anderson, who will be based in Charlotte and report to Robin Michel, head of the Regional Private Markets Group of Commercial Real Estate, joined Wells Fargo in 1985, as part of the legacy Wachovia organization. He has more than 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, with a particular focus on the homebuilder sector. Most recently, he managed homebuilder relationships in Wells Fargo’s former Special Situations Group. Anderson holds an M.B.A. with Beta Gamma Sigma honors from the Executive MBA Program at Georgia State University and an undergraduate degree in history and economics from Vanderbilt University.

“Bird’s deep experience in this sector and extensive industry relationships make him the perfect leader for Homebuilder Banking,” said Mark Myers, head of Commercial Real Estate. “Wells Fargo has a long history of commercial real estate lending through all market cycles. Our prudent risk management practices combined with our strong focus on meeting customer needs has enabled us to continue as the #1 commercial real estate lender in the U.S. We look forward to providing a new dedicated level of service to our homebuilder clients as the markets recover.”

Credit Supervision will be led by Dan Sullivan, another 25+ year veteran of commercial real estate finance. Sullivan is based in Charlotte and also leads credit management activity for Wells Fargo’s Hospitality Finance Group.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 full-time equivalent team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

Wells Fargo provides nationwide commercial real estate banking, capital markets, and advisory services in a single platform that includes lending, syndications, debt placement, equity raising and underwriting, mergers and acquisitions and servicing. Wells Fargo was ranked as the nation’s largest commercial real estate lender and servicer and top multifamily lender by the Mortgage Bankers Association for 2010; was named the largest issuer of preferred stock REIT equity and the largest domestic REIT and real estate bookrunner by Thompson Financial in 2010; and was named the most active brokerage of large commercial real estate sales in 2010 by Real Estate Alert. For more about the Wells Fargo commercial real estate platform visit: www.wellsfargo.com/realestate.