Wells Fargo Just Earned $6.0 Billion in Q3 and Sees No Cracks in the Consumer. Keep Inflation and Federal Borrowing in the Crosshairs
Wells Fargo reported Oct. 13 that loans and deposits each grew 11% and delinquencies remain low, even as loss provisions rose. In our view, the consumer is holding up, and the threats to that strength are inflation and expensive money that Washington can do something about.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 14, 2026 | 6-min read Wells Fargo serves the kind of customers Washington talks about and rarely listens to: households with a checking account, a car loan and a credit card, and small businesses that live on a line of credit. So when Wells Fargo's chief financial officer told CNBC on Tuesday that "we're just not seeing any sort of cracks around delinquency trends," it was worth hearing [1]. The bank reported third-quarter net income of $6.0 billion, or $1.87 a share, up 13% from a year earlier [2]. In our view, that is good news for Main Street, and a reminder that the biggest threats to it now are inflation and expensive money, not a collapsing consumer. Key Takeaways Wells Fargo earned $5.95 billion in the third quarter, versus $5.59 billion a year earlier; diluted EPS rose to $1.87 from $1.66 [2]. Average loans and average deposits each rose 11% from a year ago, and the bank opened more than 660,000 new credit card accounts [2]. Provision for credit losses rose to $1.029 billion from $681 million, and net charge-offs reached $983 million [2]. CEO Charlie Scharf said "higher interest rates, higher oil prices and persistent