Wells Fargo gets a trade processing bonus

Few people outside trading realise that Wells Fargo Bank, an American retail bank known for its signature stage coach, is a global trade-document processing behemoth as a result of its recent acquisition of Wachovia Bank.

Tucked away in a non-descript office building in Hong Kong's Taikoo Shing development, the American institution has more than 500 staff checking and processing trade documents for banks and corporations from around the world. According to Steven Nichols, Hong Kong-based managing director and head of global trade services at Wells Fargo, the bank operates one of the single largest trade-processing centres under one roof in Hong Kong, handling thousands of documents on a 246...