Norwest Corporation
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| Genre | Financial Services |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Wells Fargo |
| Successor | Wells Fargo |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Defunct | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
Norwest Corporation was a banking and financial services company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In 1998, it merged with Wells Fargo & Co. and since that time has traded under the Wells Fargo name.
The earliest roots of the company are with the Northwestern National Bank established in Minneapolis in 1872. Early Minneapolis business and political leaders Dorilus Morrison and Henry T. Welles were the bank's first two presidents. Initially the bank was heavily supported by the Northern Pacific Railroad, but as the city and region grew the bank's deposits and assets grew in kind. Between 1872 and 1892 the bank's deposits increased from $50,000 to $3 million. Between 1892 and 1902 deposits more than tripled to more than $10 million.
During the generally prosperous 1920s, the nation's agricultural sector did not share in the good times. Many smaller banks that had overextended credit to farmers ran into serious trouble. In the Upper Midwest alone, 1,500 banks became insolvent from 1920 to 1929. It was with this backdrop that in early 1929, just months before the stock market crash, two banking associations were formed in the Twin Cities of Minnesota: Northwestern Bancorporation and the First Bank Stock Corporation (later known as First Bank System and then U.S. Bancorp).
The Northwestern cooperative, known more simply as "Banco", was a federation anchored by Northwestern National Bank in Minneapolis. Banco acquired stock in the affiliated banks and served as a mutual protection association. Another 90 banks joined Banco in its first year of operation, and by 1932 there were 139 affiliates.
During the Great Depression, numerous additional banks failed. In 1932, 700 Upper Midwestern banks failed. None of the Banco members went under – and no depositor lost any savings – because the group was able to move liquidity around the system and in some cases, inject new capital into troubled banks. The number of members did decline, however, as some units in the group merged while others were sold off. Membership fell to 83 by 1940, then to 70 by 1952.
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