By contrast, Norwest, which aggressively pushes traditional retail products, such as mortgages and consumer loans, through a huge network of non-bank offices as well as bank branches, has a markedly different culture from Wells Fargo's.
Buffett increased his position in Wal-Mart from 19.9 million shares to 39 million shares and added to his ownership of Wells Fargo, a bank battered by the financial crisis, as well as U.S. Bancorp, drug giant Sanofi-Aventis and Tesco, a British retail chain.
In my opinion, larger financial organizations with a history of cross-selling and integrated products Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, LPLA, Ameritrade would be well advised to circulate this case among its managers and supervisors.