Wells Fargo merged with Norwest in 1998 to create the modern Wells Fargo & Company.
Norwest was a Minneapolis-based financial-services company with a large branch network and a history reaching back to the Northwestern National Bank system. Wells Fargo was the famous California banking name founded during the 19th-century expansion of banking and express services.
Although Norwest was technically the surviving corporate entity, the combined company adopted the better-known Wells Fargo name. Its headquarters moved to San Francisco, and the merger expanded the bank’s geographic reach across the United States.
This transaction is sometimes confused with Wells Fargo’s later acquisition of Wachovia. That 2008 deal was separate and substantially increased Wells Fargo’s presence on the East Coast.