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Good morning. Today is Wednesday, January 11th. I'm Rina Sherbal filling in for

Julie Morgan. Our top stories today. Wells Fargo

unveil plans to step back from housing Market, World Bank slash his global growth

forecast, and Fed Chair not a climate policymaker. More on our top stories. Once one of the biggest mortgage lenders in the United States, Wells Fargo,

has unveiled plans to step back from the housing market. Instead of going for the entire industry,

its previous goal was a 40 to 50 percent market share, the bank is shrinking its mortgage

portfolio by only making loans to bank clients and minority borrowers.

While the business was one of the company's biggest profit generators over the years, things have gotten tougher amid regulatory pressure and higher interest rates.

Wells Fargo is shuddering its correspondent lending business in which the bank lends capital to other firms that sell mortgages as distinct providers.

It's a big deal as the division accounted for nearly 40% of its mortgage volume as of Q3 2022.

Wells Fargo is also reducing the size of its servicing

portfolio by selling billions of dollars worth of mortgage servicing rights

to other players in the sector. Wells Fargo CEO of Consumer Lending said we are making the decision

to continue to reduce risk in the mortgage business by reducing its size and

narrowing its focus. Mortgage is an important relationship product and we are acutely aware of Wells Fargo's history since 2016

and the work we need to do to restore public confidence.

As part of that review, we determined that our home lending business was too large both in

terms of overall size and scope.

The reference the CEO made to 2016 was of course referencing the cross-selling

...