By Ross Kerber
BOSTON (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co on Thursday said the aftertax impact on net income of a regulatory cap on its assets will be less than $100 million in 2018, and gave an outlook for 2019 expenses that was slightly lower than analyst expectations.
In an opening presentation, Wells Fargo Chief Executive Tim Sloan said the bank is making plans to operate under the asset cap for the first part of 2019 and acknowledged that "we have not executed as well as we could have" on compliance and risk oversight areas.
Wells Fargo Treasurer Neal Blinde said the bank had previously expected the reduction to net income from the asset cap would be between $300 to $400 million. But lower deposit and loan growth trends "give us some headroom" within the cap, leading to the updated figure of less than $100 million, he said.
In an investor presentation posted on the San Francisco bank's website, Wells Fargo said it expects net interest income to be "relatively stable" in 2018 as projected higher interest rates will be offset by lower earning assets and increases in deposit costs.
The bank's shares were up 0.5 percent in morning trading.
More From This Section
For 2018, the bank said it expects that total noninterest expenses will be between $53.5 billion and $54.5 billion, and between $52 billion and $53 billion for 2019. Both ranges include typical operating losses and exclude litigation and remediation items, the bank said.
Analysts on average expected 2019 noninterest expenses of $53.2 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Sloan vowed to improve service to customers, who he said "want convenience and access," and said the bank is launching a new advertising campaign to re-establish its brand after a series of sales practices scandals.
Investors said this week they were looking for updates on how long the bank would stay in the regulatory doghouse, and would be looking for details about costs as questions remained about the lender's ability to grow its balance sheet.
The scandals over sales and lending practices at Wells Fargo has cast a dark cloud over the bank, which previously was known for its ability to consistently grow revenue and earnings in the post-crisis era.
It is now under orders by the Federal Reserve to keep assets below $1.95 trillion until governance and controls improve, which has complicated matters as the bank tries to improve its closely watched efficiency ratio measuring costs per dollar of revenue.
Wells Fargo has revamped its leadership since the scandal erupted in 2016 and got a boost on April 24 when directors including Chief Executive Tim Sloan and Chair Elizabeth Duke handily won shareholder support.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Bernadette Baum)