NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 21, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the quarterly results reported by Well Fargo&Co. (AA-/Negative/A-1+) will not affect its ratings on the company. Wells's first-quarter earnings were flat sequentially and remain moderate. Pressures from recessionary conditions continue, though asset quality improved during the quarter. After adjusting for the impact on provisions from SFAS 167 and collateral-dependent modified loans, provisioning improved by 14% sequentially, declining to $5.1 billion ($5.3 billion reported) from $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter. Credit losses improved modestly from declining commercial and commercial real estate loan losses, while consumer losses remained flat. Early-stage delinquency trends are encouraging. However, nonperformers climbed in both commercial and consumer segments with
