Wells to Move Its Retail Headquarters to L.A.

Saying Southern California remains a key area for growth, Wells Fargo & Co. said Monday it would move the headquarters for its California retail branch system to Los Angeles from San Francisco.

Laura Schulte, currently Wells Fargo’s retail head for Nevada and Utah, was named to run the 900-branch California operation, which includes $63 billion in loans to individuals and small businesses and 14,000 employees.

Schulte, who will move to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, also will have responsibility for 50 branches along the Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, reflecting Wells’ concerted effort to win business from the nation’s growing Latino population.

Wells, based in San Francisco, said recently that Leslie S. Biller, its L.A.-based chief operating officer, would leave the banking company in October to pursue his goal of becoming a chief executive.

The move of retail operations to Los Angeles will help signal to Southern California’s small businesses how much the region matters to Wells, said banking analyst Joseph K. Morford of RBC Capital Markets.

“Since there are no large banks based in L.A. any more, this is kind of making a statement,” Morford said.

Wells runs neck-and-neck in California with Washington Mutual Inc. in the booming mortgage origination business and is No. 1 in home equity loans throughout the state.

But it is second to Bank of America Corp. in deposits in California and third in some areas, such as the Los Angeles-Orange County region.

“Orange County absolutely is still a growth market for us,” said Kim Young, who was named Wells’ regional president for Orange County--the first time the bank will have an executive for the county.

Shelley Freeman, an executive with a background in private banking and online services, will become regional president for Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Getting banking customers to use Wells’ brokerage and portfolio management services is a top priority, Freeman said.

The Southern California executives will report to Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the California retail operations from San Francisco.

Tolstedt, promoted to executive vice president for regional banking, will have overall responsibility for branch operations in 23 states.