Pursuits
Wells Fargo Misjudged the Risks of Energy Financing
- Banks misjudged risk of loans backed by energy reserves
- `They were not scrutinizing price assumptions and forecasts'
Banks Get Strict on Oil Patch Borrowing
This article is for subscribers only.
At its annual investor conference in San Francisco in May 2014, with oil trading at $102 a barrel, Wells Fargo & Co. boasted that in just two years it had almost doubled its energy exposure and seized the title of Wall Street’s top oil and gas banker.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. Crude prices peaked a month later and have since plummeted to $40. Wells Fargo has downgraded 38 percent of its energy loans and set aside $1.2 billion to cover potential losses, according to company filings. The loans are coming under increasing scrutiny from regulators and investors, even though they make up only 2 percent of the bank’s portfolio.