Wells Fargo & Co. is "well positioned" for upcoming stress tests of the largest U.S. banks, Chief Executive John Stumpf said on Tuesday.
The fourth-largest U.S. bank looks forward to returning more capital to shareholders next year, Stumpf said at a Goldman Sachs financial services conference in New York. He did not provide specifics on the bank's plans.
Wells is one of six large U.S. banks that will face additional scrutiny of their exposure to the European debt crisis.
The bank has no "sovereign claims" against the five countries at the center of the crisis, Stumpf said. The bank's "gross outside exposure" to those five countries was $3.1 billion at the end of the third quarter, he said.
Wells had total loans of $760 billion at the end of the third quarter.
The Federal Reserve plans to release results of the stress tests in March.
In the fourth quarter, Wells expects higher mortgage fee income but also expects higher noninterest expenses from the mortgage business and its 2008 acquisition of financial services company Wachovia, Stumpf said.
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