Wells Fargo Banks new top executive here says hes working to expand the San Francisco-based banks Spokane-area branch system and has been adding personnel here.


Don Young, Wells Fargos new Spokane-based community bank president, says he has looked at adding branches in the North Division and Sullivan Road corridors, but hasnt found suitable locations yet.


The best way to accomplish such an expansion is if we could find an acquisition candidate in those markets, Young says. Hes unsure, however, whether Wells Fargo would be able to accomplish that as quickly as it would like. He adds, Ive met with a couple of real estate developers to discuss the banks desire to find branch sites.


With seven Spokane-area branches now, including one at 7404 N. Division, the banks metropolitan-area branch coverage is not bad, but is in the also-ran category when compared with the 11- or 12-branch systems some institutions have here, Young says. The bank would like to open a branch farther north on North Division and add a branch in the Sullivan Road-Liberty Lake area, he says. Young, who has been on the job here for two months, says hes uncertain where else in the Spokane area Wells Fargo would seek to put new branches.


Young, who moved to Spokane after having worked for Wells Fargo in the Seattle area for four years, says he plans to raise Wells Fargos image here. He says the bank is viewed here as an institution that is pretty sedate, pretty quiet, knows its business, but is not out there aggressively seeking business. Ive got to raise the noise level. We intend to grow significantly in both commercial and retail banking here, he says.


In the last two months, Wells Fargo has added five personal bankers to its staff of a dozen personal bankers here, and it plans to hire three or four more personal bankers in the next six months, Young says. The bank also has hired an additional business banker in the last two months. It had four business bankers before it began the hiring spurt, and it has reassigned six other bankers so they spend a significant amount of their time on business banking, Young says. He says he plans to hire more business bankers, although he cant say right now precisely how many more he will recruit.


Young succeeded Gary Garrett, who retired.