On a call with analysts Friday, Shrewsberry said the Credit Suisse brokers Wells Fargo has recruited will not be "a huge game-changer in terms of the numbers." He said it equated to between three and five months of regular recruitment. A Wells Fargo spokesman declined to say how many advisors it recruited.

Competition from rival banks is getting tougher. Morgan Stanley has retooled under CEO James Gorman, shrinking its securities division to emphasize wealth management.

The business has also grown more prominent at other banks including Bank of America's Merrill Lynch, UBS Group AG, Bank of New York Mellon Corp and Goldman. The threat from smaller firms has also grown as technology has made it cheaper for advisers to gain access to clearing, marketing and compliance and investment products.

Tighter Regulation

Tighter regulation is another issue. A proposed conflict-of-interest rule from the U.S. Labor Department would make it much harder for firms to sell proprietary investment products to clients. A Morningstar report estimates the rule will cost the financial sector at least $2.4 billion annually. The Department of Labor countered it would cost $2.4 to $5.7 billion over 10 years, while saving $17 billion annually for retirees.

One advantage for Wells is that it has controlled costs better than rivals have. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley locked up advisors with multiyear guarantees following the financial crisis, while Wells mostly steered clear of those deals.

Shrewsberry said if markets do not recover and Wells Fargo does not gather new assets, the impact on annual net income would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He compared that to the $23 billion the bank earned in 2015.

"It's -- in the scheme of things -- a manageable outcome," he said.

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