The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Erika Najarian - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst
: My first question is on the revenue side. As a follow-up to Chubak's line of questioning, I think not only the trading numbers come
better this year but also investment banking. And so I hear you loud and clear about the cyclicality of the trading business. But I
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OCTOBER 13, 2023 / 2:00PM, WFC.N - Q3 2023 Wells Fargo & Co Earnings Call
guess, help us get a sense of if the industry wallet, for example, return to 2019 levels, do you think that you're going to have generally
a higher share of revenues in capital markets versus 2019?
And sort of the sub-question to that is, as we think about the investments you have already made, what are the other businesses
that could potentially surprise us to the upside, where it's not quite optimized yet in terms of its revenue production? And obviously,
everybody is thinking about -- you mentioned card, and also everybody is also thinking about wealth management and investment
advisory revenues.
Question: Erika Najarian - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Analyst
: Got it. And I think that excitement is clear, Charlie. And my second question is, given all of that and taking a step back, I totally think
it's too early, I agree with you, to give anything on '24 expenses. But more broadly discussing, do you feel like the company is in a
little bit of an inflection point? Because on one hand, Mike was saying that very few parts of the bank are optimized. On the other, I
think you guys mentioned that the head count is not going the other way, and perhaps it's really some of the outside consulting
fees that could go up and down.
But I'm wondering if you get asked about expenses in a framework of flat, but then all of this momentum on the revenue side seems
to be on the comp. And I'm wondering how you think about as you budget for the company and as you think about just getting to
that 15% ROTCE. Let's just put Basel III Endgame aside in terms of the denominator, how do you balance some of the shareholders
and the analysts that are asking you about expenses in the context of flat versus the revenue momentum that obviously would need
expenses to keep sustaining versus that revenue momentum that you seem to be so excited about?
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