Wells Fargo CFO Forecasts Rising Net Interest Income Amid Loan Growth

Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Mike Santomassimo said Tuesday (June 9) that the bank’s net interest income (NII) will increase this quarter and that the bank will achieve its full-year forecast of about $50 billion in NII, Reuters reported Tuesday.

“This quarter, you’re obviously going to see a step up in NII,” Santomassimo told an investor conference, according to the report. He added that Wells Fargo is “very confident” it will achieve the NII that it forecasts.

Santomassimo added that loan growth is performing well and that consumers remain resilient, per the report.

Wells Fargo said in its latest earnings release, which was issued April 14, that its net interest income increased by 5% year over year during the first quarter.

The bank said the increase was driven by “higher deposit balances and lower deposit costs, improved results in our Markets business, higher loan and investment securities balances, and fixed rate asset repricing, partially offset by the impact of lower interest rates on floating rate assets.”

In a presentation released at the time, Wells Fargo said its expected 2026 net interest income of about $50 billion was unchanged from its previous guidance. The bank added that its NII performance would be determined by “the absolute level of rates and the shape of the yield curve; deposit balances, mix and pricing; and loan demand.”

PYMNTS reported June 1 that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Quarterly Banking Profile for the first quarter found that the banking industry’s net interest income declined by 0.8% from the prior quarter while its noninterest income rose 5.8%.

The FDIC said that net interest margin declined to 3.31%, down eight basis points from the previous quarter. Asset yields fell more quickly than funding costs, compressing the spread between what banks earn on loans and securities and what they pay for deposits and other funding sources, the report said.

FDIC Chairman Travis Hill said during a press briefing about the Quarterly Banking Profile: “This quarter, the earnings growth was driven by noninterest income, which grew particularly at the largest banks due to market volatility, which was partly due to the conflict in Iran.”