Wells Fargo to Resume Accepting California IOUs on September 4, 2009

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) said it will resume accepting registered warrants, or IOUs, on Sept. 4, 2009, for deposit that were issued by the State of California to its Wells Fargo and Wachovia retail and business customers.

Customers, who must have opened their account on or before August 31, 2009, will have next-business day funds availability for the principal amount of the IOU, subject to Wells Fargo’s funds availability policy. For all IOUs deposited on Sept. 4 through Sept. 30, 2009, if the accrued interest on the IOU exceeds $5, the full amount of the interest paid will be credited to the customer’s account within 30 days of deposit. After Sept. 30, Wells Fargo will still accept the IOUs for deposit, but the accrued interest will not be credited to the customer. Wells Fargo will not cash registered warrants.

In response to its budget crisis, the State of California began issuing IOUs on July 2, 2009. Wells Fargo accepted the IOUs for deposit on that date through July 10, 2009. The state previously announced a 3.75% annualized interest rate from the date the IOU was issued to the new redemption date of Sept. 4, 2009.

"We’re offering our customers a convenient alternative of depositing their IOUs at our banking stores rather than going to the state Treasurer’s office to receive a check,” said California Community Banking Regional President Lisa Stevens. "Our goal is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and to give them a choice of when, where and how they do business with us.”

Wells Fargo is the oldest and largest financial institution headquartered in California, where it has more than 50,000 team members, $138 billion in deposits in 1,161 banking stores, 291 mortgage stores, 23 commercial banking offices and 97 consumer finance stores.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 10,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North American and internationally.