Wells Fargo Completes Conversion of Lowe’s Retirement Plans

Nation's second largest home improvement company becomes one of the largest employers to move its plans to Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement & Trust

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) announced today it has successfully moved 246,000 Lowe’s employees to its retirement services platform, marking the customer relationship forming between the nation's second largest home improvement company and the largest U.S. bank provider of institutional retirement services.

“We are thrilled to partner with Lowe’s to deliver outstanding service and products to help their employees prepare for a financially secure retirement,” said Joe Ready, director of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust, a Wells Fargo business based in Charlotte, N.C.

Wells Fargo won the opportunity to administer the Lowe’s 401 (k) and nonqualified retirement plans last fall, nine months after Wells Fargo announced its merger with Wachovia. With its employee base and retirement plan assets of $2.4 billion, Lowe's becomes one of the largest U.S. employers to become a customer of Wells Fargo's institutional retirement services.

Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust now ranks sixth in the institutional retirement services market, managing $211 billion in assets for 3.6 million plan participants. Wells Fargo's more than 6,300 retail banking stores — the largest retail banking network in the U.S. — also proved attractive to Lowe's.

“Both Lowe’s and Wells Fargo are large, national companies and have locations throughout the U.S.,” Ready said. “Having a Wells Fargo bank in locations where Lowe’s employees live and work was important to Lowe’s.”

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.2 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, the Internet (wellsfargo.com and wachovia.com), and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. With more than 278,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in America. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked #19 on Fortune’s 2009 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.