Wells Fargo Launches the Build America Bond Index

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) today announced the launch of the Wells Fargo Build America Bond Index, a comprehensive, rules-based index measuring the performance of certain types of municipal bonds issued under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Build America Bond program authorizes state and local governments to issue Build America Bonds (BAB) as taxable municipal bonds in 2009 and 2010 to finance any governmental purpose for which they otherwise could issue tax-exempt government bonds (other than private activity bonds). As of August 21, 2009, the BAB market has grown to roughly $27 billion in originations.

"Build America Bonds are a vital step in the evolution of the Municipal Bond market,” said Dan Forth, head of strategic indexing for Wells Fargo. "The Wells Fargo Build America Bond Index will help educate investors and advisors by providing additional transparency for this emerging asset class and is another way for our clients to monitor this growing market.”

Wells Fargo provides seamless end-to-end support to municipal Build America Bond issuers as well as corporate and institutional BAB investors. Wells Fargo’s Municipal Products Group partners with the Investment Grade Debt Capital Markets and Syndicate platform to provide origination and distribution capabilities. Wells Fargo also has a full-service BAB secondary trading platform that is enhanced by the firm’s market-leading fixed income trading capabilities.

The Index is market capitalization weighted and rule-based to provide diversified exposure in the market. The index is priced daily and is available on Bloomberg Professional Service^® by typing BABS Index <GO>.

Customers with questions about this index may contact Dan Forth at 704-383-4097.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.3 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 10,400 stores, over 12,000 ATMs, more than 900 corporate and commercial banking offices, and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally.