Wells Fargo Signals Strong Q2 Fee Income Growth at Bernstein Conference
At the Bernstein 42nd Annual Strategic Decisions Conference on Wednesday, Wells Fargo & Company’s WFC CEO Charlie Scharf provided an upbeat outlook for its fee-based businesses for the second quarter of 2026.
One of the major themes discussed during the conference was the continued strength in the company’s investment banking (“IB”) and markets businesses. Management stated that both IB and markets revenues are expected to rise by mid-teen percentage points in the second quarter, supported by healthy client activity across corporate and institutional businesses.
Management further stated that wealth management revenues are projected to increase at a low double-digit pace year over year in the second quarter.
Strength across IB, markets and wealth management businesses is expected to continue supporting WFC’s noninterest income growth in the second quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s noninterest income rose 8% year over year, benefiting from higher fee-based revenues and stronger client activity. As such, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the metric is pegged at $9.4 billion for the second quarter of 2026, suggesting a 3% rise from the prior-year quarter.
During the conference, management highlighted that the removal of the asset cap has improved WFC’s ability to deepen client relationships and deploy more balance sheet across lending and capital markets activities. With most regulatory restrictions now behind it, the company has greater flexibility to expand fee-based businesses and support long-term growth initiatives. The company also stated that it expects to operate with “little or no expense growth,” reflecting ongoing efficiency initiatives across the organization.
Key Updates From Other Banks at the Bernstein Conference 2026
Bank of America BAC expects trading revenues to rise nearly 15% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, marking the 17th consecutive quarter of growth in sales and trading revenues. BAC also noted that its IB pipelines remain “pretty good,” supported by improving deal-making activity. Further, wealth management revenues are expected to increase in the low-teens percentage range year over year, supporting broader noninterest income growth.
JPMorgan JPM expects its IB fees to rise 10% or more year over year in the second quarter of 2026. Further, JPM also indicated that its markets business is on track to grow nearly 11% in the second quarter and could perform “a little better” than that forecast.
WFC’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank
Shares of Wells Fargo have gained 2.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 23.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Wells Fargo currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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