Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company
20 quarters tracked through Q1 2026
Key takeaways
- 01
Wells Fargo's card NCO rate is rising while peers fall.
Net charge-off rate climbed to 7.54% in Q1 2026, the highest among the large diversified banks and up from 7.30% a year ago — even as Synchrony, Bread, Citi, and JPMorgan all printed improvement.
- 02
And the book is still growing.
Card receivables expanded to $57.3B, up roughly 5% year-over-year. Wells is underwriting into rising losses — the opposite of the de-risking posture at the subprime issuers.
- 03
Highest NCO of the big four prime banks.
At 7.54%, Wells's card loss rate sits above JPMorgan (4.40%), Citi (4.50%), and Bank of America (5.40%) — a striking gap for a prime-skewed franchise.
- 04
Earnings hold up — for now.
Card-segment net income of $1.94B and revenue of $10.0B remained solid. The question is whether growth-into-rising-losses is a deliberate share-grab or a credit-selection problem that surfaces later.
Q1 2026 · Editorial brief · By the numbers
7.54%
Net charge-off rate
Highest among the large diversified banks; up YoY.
+24 bps
NCO rate, year-over-year
Rising while most peers improve.
$57.3B
Card receivables
Up ~5% YoY — growing into rising losses.
$1.94B
Card net income
Earnings holding despite elevated charge-offs.
Q1 2026 · Editorial brief
The Only One Going Up
Across the launch coverage universe, Q1 2026 was the quarter the credit cycle started bending down — Synchrony, Bread, Citi, and JPMorgan all printed lower net charge-off rates. Wells Fargo went the other way. Its card NCO rate rose to 7.54%, the highest of the large diversified banks, and it did so while growing the book nearly 5% year-over-year.
Everyone else is de-risking into the recovery. Wells is underwriting into rising losses. One of those postures is wrong.
What the headline numbers say
Wells Fargo's card net charge-off rate moved to 7.54% in Q1 2026 from 7.19% in Q4 2025 and 7.30% a year earlier. The sequential and year-over-year direction is up — the only large diversified bank in the launch set for which that is true this quarter.
Card receivables grew to $57.3 billion, continuing a multi-quarter expansion. Card-segment revenue of $10.0B and net income of $1.94B held up, supported by a provision ($0.82B) that remains below net charge-offs ($1.10B) — Wells is releasing reserve even as losses rise.
What we'll be watching
Growth into rising losses is a deliberate strategy or a warning. The next two quarters disambiguate:
1 · Delinquency formation
If newer vintages are the problem, 30+ day delinquencies should build through 2026. A stable delinquency rate would support the deliberate-share-grab read.
2 · Provision vs. losses
Wells is currently provisioning below charge-offs. If management starts building reserve, it signals they expect the loss trajectory to worsen.
3 · NCO vs. the cohort
If JPM, Citi, and BAC keep improving while Wells climbs, the divergence is Wells-specific, not macro — a credit-selection question for management.
Wells Fargo is the single most interesting risk story in the launch universe right now: the only large card book getting riskier while everyone else heals.
By the editors. Cardintel.
Cardintel
Issuer brief · Q1 2026
Wells Fargo
The Only One Going Up
24 pages · cardintel.co
Full report
Download the 24-page Q1 2026 brief
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Credit quality
Net charge-off rate
7.54%
+35 bps
Q1 2026, annualized
30+ day delinquency rate
1.39%
+2 bps
Q1 2026
Net interest margin
—
card segment NIM — sparse
Return on assets
—
consolidated, Q1 2026, annualized
Scale & earnings
Card receivables (EOP)
$57.3B
-3.8%
end of Q1 2026
Card net revenue
$10.0B
+3.6%
Q1 2026, card segment
Provision for credit losses
$818.00M
+6.6%
Q1 2026, card segment
Net charge-offs ($)
$1.1B
+5.1%
Q1 2026
Financial summary
P&L, balance sheet, and key drivers
Standardized issuer-summary format used across all coverage. Switch tabs to compare Wells Fargo against a peer; change the table quarter independently of the page anchor.
| Metric | Wells Fargo Q1 2026 | Prior Q Q4 2025 | Prior Y Q1 2025 | QoQ | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card net revenue | $10.0B | — | $8.9B | — | +12.2% |
| Provision for credit losses | $818.00M | — | $739.00M | — | +10.7% |
| Fee income (non-interest) | $2.4B | — | $2.0B | — | +24.2% |
| Net interest incomeSprint 8 — split out of card net revenue | — | — | — | — | — |
| Noninterest expenseSprint 8 — segment expense extraction | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pretax income | — | — | — | — | — |
| Net income | $1.9B | — | $1.7B | — | +14.9% |
Generated commentary
Wells Fargo's P&L in Q1 2026: fee income (non-interest) rose 14.1% to $2.4B vs Q3 2025; net income fell 11.2% to $1.9B vs Q3 2025; provision for credit losses rose 6.6% to $818.00M vs Q3 2025. Period-over-period changes flagged below; sparse rows compare against the metric's last reported period rather than the calendar prior quarter.
$ in cents (formatted as $B / $M / $). Rows marked “pending” are tracked and will populate as the corresponding ingestion lands. Source: SEC EDGAR 10-K / 10-Q segment data and FFIEC Call Reports.
Net charge-off rate — 5-year history
Net charge-off rate for Wells Fargo (solid) vs. the bank peer median (dashed) and 90th percentile (dotted). Use the controls above to overlay individual peers or a macroeconomic series on the right axis. Source: SEC 10-K/10-Q filings and FFIEC Call Reports; macro series via FRED.
Source: SEC EDGAR 10-Q filings + FFIEC Call Reports. Updated June 4, 2026.Methodology