John At The Center

Wells Fargo is the latest to muscle in. The San Francisco-based bank, which once declared anything east of the Mississippi might as well be in China, plans to beef up the second-tier Wall Street operation it picked up when it rescued Wachovia. John Stumpf, Wells Fargo’s chief executive, boasted on Monday: “We have an enormous opportunity to become one of the top customer-focused investment banks.”

Getting Wells Fargo Securities into fighting trim will be a costly endeavor. While never among the top of the crop, the Wachovia arm has dropped to 15th place from 12th a year ago in Dealogic’s ranking of global investment banking revenues. Its market share slid by a quarter to a paltry 1.4 percent.

via Breakingviews.com. – Like Roaches, Wall St. Survives – NYTimes.com.