NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Jan. 14, 2014--In the fourth quarter, Wells Fargo&Co. (WFC) reported nonperforming asset declines, capital retention, and continued strong, diversified revenue streams. These trends are supportive of Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on WFC (A+/Negative/A-1), which remain unchanged. WFC posted $5.6 billion in net income (a solid 1.47% return on average assets) in the quarter, up 10% from fourth-quarter 2012 and about unchanged from the third quarter. Earnings continued to benefit from improved asset quality and reserve releases, although mortgage banking revenue declined substantially from fourth-quarter 2012 because of lower residential mortgage refinancings, which we expected. Overall, results for fourth-quarter 2013 were good and broadly in line with our expectations. We expect that
