Wells Fargo Eyes Options Clearing to Strengthen Wall Street Footprint

Wells Fargo & Company WFC is preparing to enter the options clearing business, reflecting rising demand from clients as options trading activity increases across markets. While the eventual market share impact remains uncertain, the expansion marks an essential step for the fourth-largest U.S. lender.

This initiative by WFC gained speed after the removal of a long-standing regulatory asset cap in June 2025. The restriction had limited Wells Fargo’s balance sheet to its 2017 level of $1.95 trillion, placing particular strain on its markets operations. With that constraint lifted, the bank has gained greater flexibility to expand its capital-intensive businesses, including clearing services.

Notably, options clearing is operationally complex and requires significant capital, as clearing brokers stand between clients and clearinghouses to finance trading activity. This structure enables market makers to provide continuous liquidity and take positions with support from their clearing partners.

Wells Fargo aims to serve these firms by reshaping its securities sales and trading operations, a process that has already involved new hires. WFC began evaluating opportunities in options clearing earlier in 2025, even before regulatory restrictions were removed. According to DJ Langis, co-head of equities in the global-markets division, client engagement has been strong.

Wells Fargo expects market makers to begin clearing options through its platform in the second half of 2026.

WFC’s Move Places It in Direct Competition With Peers

As Wells Fargo strengthens its Wall Street presence, the move into options clearing underscores its broader effort to compete more directly with leading U.S. investment banks like Bank of America BAC and Goldman Sachs GS.

Both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are established players in the options clearing business, operating as clearing brokers for large institutional clients and market makers. They commit their own capital to support clients’ options trades, standing between trading firms and the clearinghouse as intermediaries.

In this role, BAC and GS handle the operational mechanics of clearing and settlement, while also providing balance-sheet support that allows market makers to maintain liquidity and take positions efficiently. Their engagement places them at the core of the options market infrastructure.

WFC’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank

In the past three months, shares of Wells Fargo have gained 12.1%, outperforming the industry’s 5.7% rise.

Currently, the company carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research