NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) July 19, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that the relatively good second-quarter results posted by Wells Fargo&Co. (WFC; AA-/Negative/A-1+) will not affect the ratings on the company. WFC generated $6.1 billion in pretax income, up 12.8% sequentially and 30.3% year over year. Second-quarter results benefitted from a $1 billion reserve release, flat compared to last quarter. Pretax, preprovision earnings were $7.9 billion in the second quarter, up from $7.6 billion in the first quarter, but still lower than the $8.6 billion last year. The decline from last year is due to lower net interest income. Through cost-containment efforts, management is now targeting a 10%-14% reduction in expenses by the end of
