1.
Central bank
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A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages a states currency, money supply, and interest rates. Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries, Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally designed to be independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies usually exists, prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The Song dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, in 1455, in an effort to control inflation, the succeeding Ming Dynasty ended the use of paper money and closed much of Chinese trade. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in the Dutch Republic in 1609, is considered to be the forerunner to modern central banks. The Wisselbanks innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the banking system that now plays a vital role in the worlds economy. Along with a number of local banks, it performed many functions of a central banking system. Lucien Gillard calls it the European guilder, and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works, the model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden and the Bank of England. Established by Dutch-Latvian Johan Palmstruch in 1668, Sveriges Riksbank is often considered by many as the worlds oldest central bank, the lenders would give the government cash and also issue notes against the government bonds, which could be lent again. A Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes. The £1. 2M was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the Navy and these modern central banking functions evolved slowly through the 18th and 19th centuries. The currency crisis of 1797, caused by panicked depositors withdrawing from the Bank led to the government suspending convertibility of notes into specie payment. The bank was accused by the bullionists of causing the exchange rate to fall from over issuing banknotes. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Bank was being treated as an organ of the state, henry Thornton, a merchant banker and monetary theorist has been described as the father of the modern central bank. An opponent of the real bills doctrine, he was a defender of the bullionist position, thorntons process of monetary expansion anticipated the theories of Knut Wicksell regarding the cumulative process which restates the Quantity Theory in a theoretically coherent form. Until the mid-nineteenth century, commercial banks were able to issue their own banknotes, many consider the origins of the central bank to lie with the passage of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Under this law, authorisation to issue new banknotes was restricted to the Bank of England, at the same time, the Bank of England was restricted to issue new banknotes only if they were 100% backed by gold or up to £14 million in government debt
2.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation providing deposit insurance to depositors in US banks. The insurance limit was initially US$2,500 per ownership category, since the passage of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2011, the FDIC insures deposits in member banks up to US $250,000 per ownership category. The FDIC and its reserves are not funded by public funds, the FDIC also has a US$100 billion line of credit with the United States Department of the Treasury. Only banks are insured by the FDIC, credit unions are insured up to the insurance limit by the National Credit Union Administration. As of August 27,2014, the FDIC provided deposit insurance at 6,638 institutions, the FDIC also examines and supervises certain financial institutions for safety and soundness, performs certain consumer-protection functions, and manages receiverships of failed banks. Each ownership category of a money is insured separately up to the insurance limit. For joint accounts, each co-owner is assumed to own the same fraction of the account as does each other co-owner. Thus if three people own a $750,000 account, the entire account balance is insured because each depositors $250,000 share of the account is insured. The owner of a revocable trust account is insured up to $250,000 for each unique beneficiary. Thus if there is a owner of an account that is specified as in trust for three different beneficiaries, the funds in the account are insured up to $750,000. The Board of Directors of the FDIC is the body of the FDIC. The board is composed of five members, three appointed by the president of the United States with the consent of the United States Senate, the three appointed members each serve six-year terms. No more than three members of the board may be of the political affiliation. The two ex officio members are the Comptroller of the Currency and the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As of January 1,2016, the members of the Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were, both of the panics renewed discussion on deposit insurance. In 1893, William Jennings Bryan presented a bill to Congress proposing a national insurance fund. No action was taken, as the legislature paid more attention to the depression at the time. After 1907, eight states established deposit insurance funds, in 1921, there were about 31,000 banks in the US
3.
Cheque
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A cheque or check is a document that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a persons account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing the cheque, the drawer, has a banking account where their money is held. Cheques are a type of bill of exchange and were developed as a way to make payments without the need to carry large amounts of money, both the drawer and payee may be natural persons or legal entities. Cheques are order instruments, and are not in general payable simply to the bearer as bearer instruments are, in some countries, such as the US, the payee may endorse the cheque, allowing them to specify a third party to whom it should be paid. By the second half of the 20th century, as cheque processing became automated, billions of cheques were issued annually, since then cheque usage has fallen, being partly replaced by electronic payment systems. In an increasing number of countries cheques have either become a marginal payment system or have been phased out. The spellings check, checque, and cheque were used interchangeably from the 17th century until the 20th century, in American English, the usual spelling for both is check. The cheque had its origins in the ancient banking system, in which bankers would issue orders at the request of their customers, such an order was referred to as a bill of exchange. The use of bills of exchange facilitated trade by eliminating the need for merchants to carry large quantities of currency to purchase goods, the ancient Romans are believed to have used an early form of cheque known as praescriptiones in the 1st century BC. Muslim traders are known to have used the cheque or ṣakk system since the time of Harun al-Rashid of the Abbasid Caliphate, transporting a paper saqq was more secure than transporting money. In the 9th century, a merchant in country A could cash a saqq drawn on his bank in country B. In the 13th century in Venice the bill of exchange was developed as a device to allow international trade without the need to carry large amounts of gold. Their use subsequently spread to other European countries, in the early 1500s in the Dutch Republic, to protect large accumulations of cash, people began depositing their money with cashiers. These cashiers held the money for a fee, competition drove cashiers to offer additional services including paying money to any person bearing a written order from a depositor to do so. They kept the note as proof of payment and this concept went on to spread to England and elsewhere. By the 17th century, bills of exchange were being used for payments in England. Cheques, a type of bill of exchange, then began to evolve, initially they were called drawn notes, because they enabled a customer to draw on the funds that he or she had in the account with a bank and required immediate payment. These were handwritten, and one of the earliest known still to be in existence was drawn on Messrs Morris and Clayton, scriveners and bankers based in the City of London, in 1717, the Bank of England pioneered the first use of a pre-printed form
4.
Federal Reserve System
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The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. Over the years, events such as the Great Depression in the 1930s, the U. S. Congress established three key objectives for monetary policy in the Federal Reserve Act, maximizing employment, stabilizing prices, and moderating long-term interest rates. The first two objectives are sometimes referred to as the Federal Reserves dual mandate. S, the Fed conducts research into the economy and releases numerous publications, such as the Beige Book. S. member banks, and various advisory councils. The federal government sets the salaries of the seven governors. Nationally chartered commercial banks are required to hold stock in the Federal Reserve Bank of their region, thus, the Federal Reserve System has both private and public components to serve the interests of the public and private banks. The structure is considered unique among central banks and it is also unusual in that the United States Department of the Treasury, an entity outside of the central bank, prints the currency used. The U. S. Government receives all the annual profits, after a statutory dividend of 6% on member banks capital investment is paid. In 2015, the Federal Reserve made a profit of $100.2 billion, the primary motivation for creating the Federal Reserve System was to address banking panics. Before the founding of the Federal Reserve System, the United States underwent several financial crises, a particularly severe crisis in 1907 led Congress to enact the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Today the Federal Reserve System has responsibilities in addition to ensuring the stability of the financial system. S. S and this practice is called fractional-reserve banking. As a result, banks usually invest the majority of the funds received from depositors, on rare occasions, too many of the banks customers will withdraw their savings and the bank will need help from another institution to continue operating, this is called a bank run. Bank runs can lead to a multitude of social and economic problems, the Federal Reserve System was designed as an attempt to prevent or minimize the occurrence of bank runs, and possibly act as a lender of last resort when a bank run does occur. Many economists, following Milton Friedman, believe that the Federal Reserve inappropriately refused to lend money to banks during the bank runs of 1929. Because some banks refused to clear checks from certain others during times of economic uncertainty, to address these problems, Congress gave the Federal Reserve System the authority to establish a nationwide check-clearing system. It took over this role from the private sector clearing houses which operated during the Free Banking Era, whether public or private, through its discount window and credit operations, Reserve Banks provide liquidity to banks to meet short-term needs stemming from seasonal fluctuations in deposits or unexpected withdrawals. Longer term liquidity may also be provided in exceptional circumstances, the rate the Fed charges banks for these loans is called the discount rate. By making these loans, the Fed serves as a buffer against unexpected day-to-day fluctuations in reserve demand and this contributes to the effective functioning of the banking system, alleviates pressure in the reserves market and reduces the extent of unexpected movements in the interest rates. For example, on September 16,2008, the Federal Reserve Board authorized an $85 billion loan to stave off the bankruptcy of international insurance giant American International Group
5.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
6.
Wall Street
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Wall Street is an eight-block-long street running roughly northwest to southeast from Broadway to South Street, at the East River, in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the markets of the United States as a whole. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, there are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named de Walstraat got its name. A conflicting explanation is that Wall Street was named after Walloons— the Dutch name for a Walloon is Waal, among the first settlers that embarked on the ship Nieu Nederlandt in 1624 were 30 Walloon families. The Dutch word wal can be translated as rampart, however, even some English maps show the name as Waal Straat, and not as Wal Straat. But soon after that, the Dutch governor, Kieft, sent his men out there one night, few of them escaped, but they spread the story of what had been done, and this did much to antagonize all the remaining tribes against all the white settlers. Shortly after, Nieuw Amsterdam erected a palisade for defense against its now enraged red neighbors. The space between the walls is now called Wall Street, and its spirit is still that of a bulwark against the people. In the 1640s basic picket and plank fences denoted plots and residences in the colony, in 1685, surveyors laid out Wall Street along the lines of the original stockade. In these early days, local merchants and traders would gather at disparate spots to buy and sell shares and bonds, Wall Street was also the marketplace where owners could hire out their slaves by the day or week. The rampart was removed in 1699, the slave market operated from 1711 to 1762 at the corner of Wall and Pearl Streets. It was a structure with a roof and open sides, although walls may have been added over the years. The city directly benefited from the sale of slaves by implementing taxes on every person who was bought, in the late 18th century there was a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street under which traders and speculators would gather to trade securities. The benefit was being in proximity to each other, in 1792, traders formalized their association with the Buttonwood Agreement which was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange. The idea of the agreement was to make the more structured and without the manipulative auctions. Persons signing the agreement agreed to each other a standard commission rate, persons not signing could still participate. In 1789 Wall Street was the scene of the United States first presidential inauguration when George Washington took the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall on April 30,1789 and this was also the location of the passing of the Bill Of Rights. Alexander Hamilton, who was the first Treasury secretary and architect of the early United States financial system, is buried in the cemetery of Trinity Church, in the first few decades, both residences and businesses occupied the area, but increasingly business predominated
7.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
8.
JPMorgan Chase
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a U. S. multinational banking and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest bank in the United States, the third largest bank by total assets, with total assets of roughly US$2.5 trillion. It is a provider of financial services, and according to Forbes magazine is the worlds sixth largest public company based upon a composite ranking. The hedge fund unit of JPMorgan Chase is the second largest hedge fund in the United States, the company was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with J. P. Morgan & Co. The J. P. Morgan brand, historically known as Morgan, is used by the investment banking, asset management, private banking, private wealth management, and treasury & securities services divisions. Fiduciary activity within private banking and private wealth management is done under the aegis of JPMorgan Chase Bank, the Chase brand is used for credit card services in the United States and Canada, the banks retail banking activities in the United States, and commercial banking. The corporate headquarters is located at 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, the retail and commercial bank is headquartered in 270 Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York, U. S. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is considered to be a universal bank. As of 2016, JPMorgan Chase is one of the Big Four banks of the United States, followed by Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. JPMorgan Chase, in its current structure, is the result of the combination of several large U. S. banking companies since 1996, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Bank One, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. The Chase Manhattan Bank was formed upon the 1955 purchase of Chase National Bank by the Bank of the Manhattan Company, the Bank of the Manhattan Company was the creation of Aaron Burr, who transformed The Manhattan Company from a water carrier into a bank. This of course injected a powerful element of politics into the process and invited what today would be called corruption, the innocuous-looking clause allowed the company to invest surplus capital in any lawful enterprise. Within six months of the creation, and long before it had laid a single section of water pipe, the company opened a bank. Still in existence, it is today J. P. Morgan Chase, weakened by the real estate collapse in the early 1990s, it was acquired by Chemical Bank in 1996, retaining the Chase name. Before its merger with J. P. Morgan & Co. the new Chase expanded the investment, in 1999, it acquired San Francisco-based Hambrecht & Quist for $1.35 billion. In April 2000, UK-based Robert Fleming & Co. was purchased by the new Chase Manhattan Bank for $7.7 billion, the New York Chemical Manufacturing Company was founded in 1823 as a maker of various chemicals. In 1824, the company amended its charter to perform banking activities, in the 1980s and early 1990s, Chemical emerged as one of the leaders in the financing of leveraged buyout transactions. In 1984, Chemical launched Chemical Venture Partners to invest in equity transactions alongside various financial sponsors. At many points throughout history, Chemical Bank was the largest bank in the United States
9.
Bank of America
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Bank of America is a multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is ranked 2nd on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets, as of 2016, Bank of America was the 26th largest company in the United States by total revenue. In 2016, it was ranked #11 on the Forbes Magazine Global 2000 list of largest companies in the world and its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in 2008 made it the worlds largest wealth management corporation and a major player in the investment banking market. As of December 31,2016, it had US$886.148 billion in assets under management, as of December 31,2016, the company held 10. 73% of all bank deposits in the United States. It is one of the Big Four banks in the United States, along with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America operates—but does not necessarily maintain retail branches—in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and more than 40 other countries. It has a retail banking footprint that serves approximately 46 million consumer, Bank of America provides its products and services through 4,600 retail financial centers, approximately 15,900 automated teller machines, call centers, and online and mobile banking platforms. The history of Bank of America dates back to October 17,1904, Giannini was raised by his mother and stepfather Lorenzo Scatena, as his father was fatally shot over a pay dispute with an employee. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to all deposits out of the bank building. Because San Franciscos banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults, from a makeshift desk consisting of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to those who wished to rebuild. In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy, in 1918 another corporation, Bancitaly Corporation, was organized by A. P. Giannini, the largest stockholder of which was Stockholders Auxiliary Corporation. Monnette and consolidated it with other holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country. Bank of Italy was renamed on November 3,1930 to Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, Giannini and Monnette headed the resulting company, serving as co-chairs. Branch banking was introduced by Giannini shortly after 1909 legislation in California that allowed for branch banking in the state and its first branch outside San Francisco was established in 1909 in San Jose. By 1929, the bank had 453 banking offices in California with aggregate resources of over US$1.4 billion. There is a replica of the 1909 Bank of Italy branch bank in History Park in San Jose, and the 1925 Bank of Italy Building is an important downtown landmark. Giannini sought to build a bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company. In 1953, regulators succeeded in forcing the separation of Transamerica Corporation, the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the company continuing in the insurance business
10.
Wells Fargo
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Wells Fargo & Company is an American international banking and financial services holding company headquartered in San Francisco, California, with hubquarters throughout the country. It is the worlds second-largest bank by market capitalization and the third largest bank in the U. S. by assets, Wells Fargo surpassed Citigroup Inc. to become the third-largest U. S. bank by assets at the end of 2015. Wells Fargo is the second-largest bank in deposits, home mortgage servicing, the firms primary U. S. operating subsidiary is national bank Wells Fargo Bank, N. A. which designates its main office as Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In 2016, Wells Fargo ranked 7th on the Forbes Magazine Global 2000 list of largest public companies in the world, in 2015, the company was ranked the 22nd most admired company in the world, and the 7th most respected company in the world. As of October 2015, the company had a rating of AA−. However, for a period in 2007, the company was the only AAA-rated bank. Along with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, as of December 31,2015, it had 8,700 retail branches and 13,000 automated teller machines. The company operates across 35 countries and has over 70 million customers globally, in February 2014, Wells Fargo was named the worlds most valuable bank brand for the second year running in The Banker and Brand Finance study of the top 500 banking brands. In December 2016, following the scandal, the company amended its by-laws to separate the roles of chairman, in January 2017, it emerged that Wells Fargo had kept its talks with the U. S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about the fake account investigation silent from shareholders for up to six months beginning as early as March 2016. A regulatory filing by Wells Fargo revealed in November 2016 that it was under investigation by the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to its accounts sales practices. Also in November 2016, three U. S. senators alleged that Wells Fargos sales scandal had extended from retail bankers to its employees. Wells Fargo delineates three different business segments when reporting results, Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth, Brokerage, the Community Banking segment includes Regional Banking, Diversified Products, and the Consumer Deposits groups, as well as Wells Fargo Customer Connection. Wells Fargo also has around 2,000 stand-alone mortgage branches throughout the country, in March 2017, Wells Fargo announced a plan to offer smartphone-based transactions with mobile wallets including Wells Fargo Wallet, Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is the largest retail mortgage lender in the United States, as of Q32011, originating one out of every four home loans. Wells Fargo services $1.8 trillion in home mortgages, the 2nd largest servicing portfolio in the U. S. Now, in 2013 its share is closer to 22%, of which eight percentage points is aggregation. Wells Fargo private student loans are available to students to pay for college expenses, such as, tuition, books, computers. Loans are available for undergraduate, career and community colleges, graduate school, law school, Wells Fargo also provides private student loan consolidation and student loans for parents
