Wells Fargo Buys Texas Bank

Wells Fargo(WFC Quote) on Wednesday showed its strength amid the economic uncertainties and continued housing and credit crunch by making a bank acquisition.

The San Francisco-based bank said after the markets closed it has agreed to acquire Century Bancshares of Dallas and Texarkana, Texas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed other than it was a stock-for-stock merger. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the year, Wells Fargo says.

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo could not immediately provide the purchase price.

Century Bancshares has 32 bank branches in Dallas-Fort Worth and Texarkana, straddling the Texas and Arkansas border. The community bank has $1.4 billion in assets, $1.3 billion in deposits and $1.2 billion in loans.

Wells Fargo already has 550 branches in Texas, but through the deal with Century Bank it will add Arkansas to its nationwide footprint, it says.

Bank acquisitions have been rare this year as the housing and credit crisis deepens. But Wells Fargo, which has remained relatively unscathed when compared to other commercial banks, has said it would be opportunistic when it came to M&A. Two of the largest deals involving banks this year were in the form of bailouts of struggling companies -- JPMorgan Chase(JPM Quote) bought securities brokerage firm Bear Stearns at the end of May and Bank of America (BAC Quote) purchased Countrywide Financial, once the nation's largest mortgage lender, in early July.

Shares of Wells Fargo fell 3.6% on Wednesday.