Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc withdrew its application to the Federal Reserve to boost its ownership stake in Wells Fargo & Co above 10 percent, and is instead selling 9 million shares to keep it below that threshold.
Berkshire on Wednesday said it concluded after several months of talks with Fed officials that maintaining the higher stake would “materially restrict” its ability to do business with the third-largest U.S. bank.
The Fed exerts special oversight when investors take large bank stakes. It often allows double-digit stakes not designed to exert a “controlling influence,” but has said it would review any resulting business relationship “case-by-case.”
