Wells Fargo said its insurance brokerage fee income grew 26 percent in the first quarter of this year, reflecting overall growth in the bank's non-interest income.
Wells Fargo operates Wells Fargo Insurance Brokerage, formerly Acordia.
The bank did not give details on its insurance segment's performance, but in a statement Howard Atkins, Wells Fargo's chief financial officer, said many of its businesses achieved double-digit, year-over-year revenue growth.
"We continue to have a good balance between loan and deposit spread revenue and fee-based revenue, reflecting record cross-sell in both our retail and wholesale businesses," said Mr. Atkins.
Wells Fargo reported non-interest expense of $5.46 billion, a 1 percent decline, but the first-quarter expense included higher sales-related insurance costs. The costs were not broken out in the report.
The bank reported first-quarter net income dropped 11 percent, or $240 million, to $2 billion. Earnings per share were off 6 cents to 60 cents a share compared to the same period last year. The bank reported revenues grew 12 percent, or $1.12 billion, to $10.56 billion in the quarter.
"Despite a weakening economy, the continued downturn in housing and expected higher charge-offs, this was a remarkably strong quarter of growth for our company," said John Stumpf, president and chief executive officer.
Among the less positive developments was an increase of $500 million in write-offs in credit losses.
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