In the fourth quarter of 2025, Wells Fargo reported total revenue of $21.29 billion, up 4% year-over-year but falling short of the $21.64 billion consensus estimate. GAAP net income rose nearly 6% to $5.36 billion, or $1.76 per share, slightly outperforming the $1.66 per-share forecast. Despite stronger net interest income—driven by higher average loans of $956 billion and deposits of $1.38 trillion—the revenue miss and an uptick in non-performing assets by 7.1% year-over-year prompted a 4.6% decline in the stock on earnings day.

Since the Federal Reserve lifted its long-standing asset cap in June 2025, Wells Fargo has grown total assets by 11% compared with the prior year. Management credited broad-based loan growth—including higher trading assets to support markets activities—and an 11% increase in aggregate portfolio balances. This expansion underscores the bank’s ability to deploy capital more fully now that regulatory constraints tied to its 2018 account-opening scandal have been eased.

Wells Fargo highlighted strong performance in its consumer businesses, with new credit card accounts rising 20% in the past year and credit card balances up 6%. In auto lending, total balances jumped 19%, reflecting both higher originations and disciplined underwriting. Within small and business banking, digital account openings surged, helping net checking accounts increase year-over-year and mobile active customers expand by 4%, or 1.4 million users.

Although expenses were trimmed by 1% sequentially, severance charges of $612 million related to workforce reductions weighed on profitability, and the efficiency ratio deteriorated to 64%, above the 62.7% analysts expected. Net interest margin contracted by 10 basis points to 2.6%, underscoring pressure on yield in a competitive lending environment. Investors will be watching expense discipline and credit quality closely as potential headwinds to future earnings growth.