For those in the banking business, Mike Mayo is a well-known name.
Mayo made his career as a prominent critic of the big banks. He’s a market analyst who can move markets with his reports, and one who isn’t shy about calling out the leadership of the nation’s largest financial institutions, as he did recently in regards to Wells Fargo’s response to its fake account scandal.
And now, in a double-take-inducing move, Mayo is going to work for Wells Fargo as a banking analyst.
Wells Fargo & Co., the San Francisco-based lender that’s building out its investment bank, hired free-speaking bank analyst Mike Mayo to research the biggest U.S. financial firms.
Mayo, 54, will join as a New York-based managing director, reporting to Todd Wickwire and Sam Pearlstein, co-heads of equity research, Wells Fargo said Monday in a statement. Mayo will oversee U.S. large-cap bank research, the bank said.
“Mike’s stature in the industry is well-recognized,” Diane Schumaker-Krieg, global head of research for Wells Fargo’s investment bank, said in the statement. “We are thrilled to have such an influential voice in this critical sector join our growing platform.”
According to the Bloomberg report, Wells Fargo’s leadership is fully behind Mayo and his style.
Again from Bloomberg:
“In the end it comes down to one word: impact,” Mayo said. “We think we can have a strong impact at Wells Fargo. They are 100% on board with how we have done the job in the past.”
Should be interesting.
