"It's easy and convenient today to say this is the most difficult problem we've ever faced," says Timothy Sloan, speaking of the financial crisis. "Part of it is that we're in the middle of it, and it feels bad. But it doesn't necessarily feel worse than the 1990s."

Sloan, 48, should know. Now head of Wells Fargo & Co.'s commercial banking, real estate and specialized financial services group, Sloan started his banking career just ahead of the savings and loan crisis, in which more than 1,000 thrifts failed in the U.S. His first job was at Continental Illinois Bank, the Chicago-based bank that the federal government had to bail out in 1984, due partly to bad loans made to oil companies in Texas.

"I might not be the best person to ask about that," he says of Continental's downfall. "I knew enough then to go out and get lunch for people."

Sloan is in a much better position today. A 21-year Wells veteran -- he joined the bank in 1987 as a vice president in its loan adjustment group -- Sloan is now overseeing the integration of Wachovia Securities into the San Francisco-based bank, having begun the work in earnest at the start of the year, after Wells' $15.1 billion purchase of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. closed.

As part of the integration, Wells has appointed Robert A. Engel and Jonathan Weiss as co-heads of its investment banking effort, the same roles they had at Wachovia. Engel joined Wachovia in 2005 after 15 years with Gleacher Partners LLC; Weiss, who also signed on in 2005, previously spent 25 years at J.P. Morgan and its predecessors.

The Wachovia acquisition, explains Sloan, gives Wells an opportunity to expand in investment banking, an area the consumer banking giant has not historically emphasized. But the bank does have an active middle-market lending arm and expanded its sell-side M&A advisory business after acquiring Barrington Associates in 2006. It has also been involved in real estate financing through its Eastdil Secured LLC subsidiary.

Though too early to say how many Wachovia investment bankers Wells will ultimately keep, Sloan, who is based in Los Angeles, says the bank now sees an opportunity to garner more lead-manager roles in large debt and equity underwritings. Typically, the Northern California bank had taken co-manager roles in underwritings.