Wells Reaches $2 Trillion.

Byline: Ted Cornwell

San Francisco-The addition of $379 billion of mortgage servicing rights from Wachovia boosted Wells Fargo's portfolio of managed home loans to $2.1 trillion, 39% higher than a year earlier.

Wells valued that portfolio of loans serviced for others at 0.87% of the dollar volume. The delinquency rate on the prime credit quality portion of that portfolio, at 4%, was up by one-third from the company's third-quarter delinquency rate, however. The prime portion of the servicing portfolio consisted of 5.7 million loans totaling over $1 trillion, Wells Fargo said.

Overall, Wells said the foreclosure rate continued to rise on its owned mortgage servicing portfolio to 1.41%, though Mr. Atkins said this remains below the industry average.

Wells said it provided foreclosure prevention solutions to 498,000 customers in 2008.

Wells executives, in a recorded conference call, also outlined efforts they are making to "de-risk" the dicey home loan portfolio acquired in the Wachovia deal and other loan portfolios.

Analysts have been eyeing how Wells plans to manage Wachovia's portfolio, and the fourth-quarter reports for the two firms suggest that Wells is trying to front-load losses as much as possible.