Wells Fargo is committed to providing outstanding sales and service to all customers – and providing an outstanding place to work for its team members.

Our commitment to diversity began when we opened our doors in 1852.

Realizing the economic potential of the western frontier, founders Henry Wells and William Fargo opened their first banking and express offices to serve growing numbers of western pioneers – all immigrants from across the U.S. and abroad – in the gold rush cities of San Francisco and Sacramento. Soon after, Wells Fargo & Company became one of the few companies to hire women, as well as bilingual agents to serve its Spanish- and Chinese-speaking customers. In 1888, in its "Instructions to Agents" booklet, our company insisted on fair treatment to all its customers: "Proper respect must be shown to all – let them be men, women or children, rich or poor, white or black – it must not be forgotten that the Company is dependent on these same people for its business."

Today the diversity of our 169,000 team members enables us to respond faster to the needs of our increasingly diverse communities. We view diversity not just as the right thing to do but a growth opportunity. It's essential for achieving our vision of satisfying all our customers' needs and helping them succeed financially. Diversity is about inclusiveness: making sure everyone – team members, customers and business partners – feels welcome and included, valued for their individualism, and is given the opportunity to succeed. We want to do more than just reflect or represent the diversity of our communities. We want to be the diversity of our communities.

Today over 30 percent of the U.S. population are people of color, and by 2008, 70 percent of all new hires in the U.S. will be women and ethnically diverse. In the latest census, seven million Americans registered as being a combination of races. More immigrants came to America in the last decade than in any other decade in U.S. history. The purchasing power today of ethnically diverse Americans is approaching $2 trillion. According to the American Association of People with Disabilities, more than 50 million people – one out of every five Americans – has a disability. We cannot earn more of our customers' business and generate double-digit growth in revenue and earnings per share if we're not as diverse – in every respect – as the customers and communities we serve.

Six Steps to Diversity

We have "Six Steps to Diversity" to guide and measure the company's progress toward becoming a more inclusive environment. Every business line in our company is accountable for developing action steps for diversity. Here are our Six Steps to Diversity:

• Our CEO and executive management team take responsibility for diversity and hold themselves and others accountable.
• People from diverse backgrounds are in all levels of management. Managers are accountable for attracting diverse candidates and for developing and retaining a diverse leadership pipeline.
• We have long-term relationships with diverse communities. We use targeted marketing and advertising to build awareness of the products and services we tailor to respond to their needs.
• We contribute to the diverse communities we work, live and do business in. We have a supplier diversity program, our corporate giving benefits diverse communities and we partner with many national and community-based groups.
• Diversity is present in all of our company communications: our intranet site, our company magazines, our Annual Report, our marketing materials and wellsfargo.com.
• We're known as a diverse company. Job candidates, customers, vendors, and stockholders seek out Wells Fargo because of our diverse reputation.