Wachovia owner to hire 1,400: report

Wells Fargo & Co., the giant San Francisco bank that owns Wachovia Bank, largest in Philadelphia and some other East Coast markets, will hire around 1,000 investment advisers from other firms and train 400 new ones for offices across the country this year, reports Reuters here. (Reuters says "poach"; Wells says that's not how they'd characterize their hires.)

The firm employs 15,000 brokers, rivaling giants Bank of America/Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, the industry leader.