New York, Jan 30, 2026, 21:28 (ET) — Market closed
- WFC closed Friday down 0.17% at $90.49
- A new filing set CEO Charlie Scharf’s 2025 pay at $40 million and highlighted regulatory and capital-return milestones
- The bank’s wealth arm rolled out an in-house proxy-voting system, stepping back from Institutional Shareholder Services
Wells Fargo & Company shares edged lower on Friday, ending regular trade down 0.17% at $90.49 on New York Stock Exchange.
That small move still matters going into Monday. Bank stocks tend to swing with interest-rate expectations, which drive net interest income — the spread between what lenders earn on loans and pay out on deposits.
There’s also a governance angle now. Wells Fargo has spent years trying to shed regulatory baggage, and late-week disclosures put its cleanup efforts and shareholder-facing decisions back in focus.
U.S. stocks ended lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 down 0.43% and the Dow off 0.36%, as investors weighed a fresh inflation reading and the prospect of a new Fed chair. In a separate global wrap, the U.S. 10-year yield rose 2.4 basis points — a basis point is 0.01 percentage point — to 4.251%.
On the data, producer prices rose 0.5% in December, the biggest gain in five months, adding to the case for the Federal Reserve to stay put. “This report validates the pivot of the Fed away from labor market risks back toward price stability,” Carl Weinberg at High Frequency Economics said. Reuters
In a Thursday filing, Wells Fargo said its board approved Scharf’s total compensation of $40 million for 2025, including a $2.5 million base salary and $37.5 million in variable pay. The board pointed to steps such as closing seven regulatory consent orders, the removal of the Fed’s asset cap, and about $23 billion returned to shareholders.
The $40 million figure put Scharf in the same pay season as other top bank chiefs. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon’s compensation rose 21% to $47 million for 2025, while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was awarded a little over a 10% increase to $43 million.
Earlier in the week, Wells Fargo’s wealth and investment management unit launched an internal proxy voting service and cut ties with big proxy advisers, including severing its relationship with ISS, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The bank said its approach would focus on clients’ “long-term economic interests” and it expanded work with Broadridge Financial Solutions as part of the shift. Reuters
But the setup can cut both ways. If inflation stays sticky, higher yields can lift bank interest income in theory, yet they can also raise funding costs and cool loan demand. For Wells Fargo, any stumble on compliance or execution can still drag sentiment fast.
Next up is macro. The Bureau of Labor Statistics schedules the January jobs report for Feb. 6 at 8:30 a.m. ET, followed by January CPI on Feb. 11 at 8:30 a.m. ET — the prints most likely to set the tone for rate bets and bank shares into mid-February.
