DBRS Assigns Provisional Rating of AAA to Wells Fargo’s FDIC Guaranteed Issuance of Senior Notes

DBRS has today assigned a provisional rating of AAA to the $6 billion of senior notes, evenly split between $3 billion of 3.00% notes due December 2011 and $3 billion of three-month LIBOR notes due December 2011, issued by Wells Fargo & Company (collectively, the Notes). The Notes are being issued pursuant to the Prospectus Supplement dated June 19, 2006. The provisional AAA ratings are based on the explicit guarantee provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP), which is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Under the TLGP, the FDIC guarantees payment of qualifying debt issued by eligible U.S. bank holding companies, such as Wells Fargo & Company.

The AAA rating reflects DBRS’s opinion as to the guarantor’s ability to honor the guarantee as determined by internal assessment of the sovereign. All other debt ratings, including Wells Fargo & Company’s AA Issuer & Senior Debt rating, remain at their current levels. All long-term non-guaranteed ratings remain Under Review with Negative Implications, where they were placed on October 3, 2008.

Finalization of the rating is contingent upon receipt of final documents conforming to information already received.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

The applicable methodology is Rating Banks and Bank Holding Companies Operating in the United States, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

This is a Corporate (Financial Institutions) rating.