WFC

The first quarter was the weakest quarter for the San Francisco banking company since it bought Wachovia at the end of 2008.

Wells Fargo & Co. has rarely felt the need to make major incursions into markets occupied by entrenched competitors. In fact, its bread-and-butter strategy dictated the opposite. But when a company makes a big purchase, like Wells' acquisition of Wachovia at the height of the financial crisis, it has to figure out what to do with businesses it might not have embraced otherwise.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced this week that another major step in its merger with Wachovia Corp. is now complete. The companies consolidated over the weekend to form one investment bank, Wells Fargo Securities, and one commercial bank, Wells Fargo Bank NA.

SunTrust Banks Inc. announced a wide-ranging management shuffle Tuesday that put two high-ranking regional executives in charge of a new consumer banking division and a revamped retail operation.

A total of four sessions at the conference were focused on regulations and fiduciary responsibility and speculation swirled about who would be affected and how.

The federal government expects to recoup through taxes most of the subsidies it pays on Build America Bonds, according to the federal budget released this week.

Big banks are starting to open the tech-spending spigot, but times are tight for their smaller peers.