Wells Fargo taps ex-credit union CEO to lead business banking

• Key insight: Former credit union CEO Dennis Devine has been named as the head of Wells Fargo's business banking team.
  
• Supporting data: The San Francisco-based company serves more than 3 million U.S. small businesses.
  
• Expert quote: Wells Fargo is "uniquely positioned to support business owners across the country with its scale, experience and full array of financial products and services." — Dennis Devine

A former KeyCorp executive who later helmed a $20 billion-asset credit union has returned to the banking industry, taking a high-level role at Wells Fargo .

Wells announced Monday that it tapped Dennis Devine, who spent four years as CEO of Alliant Credit Union in Chicago, to lead its business banking team. That group serves the owners of firms with annual sales up to $25 million.

Prior to joining Alliant in 2020, Devine spent eight years at the Cleveland-based KeyCorp, where he did a stint as consumer banking president.

In his new role, Devine will report to Kleber Santos, Wells Fargo's co-CEO of consumer banking and lending.

"Dennis brings to Wells Fargo more than 20 years of financial services experience and a deep understanding of how to meet the needs of business banking customers," Santos said in a press release.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo is "uniquely positioned to support business owners across the country with its scale, experience and full array of financial products and services," Devine said in the release. "I'm looking forward to joining a team that has a solid foundation and is prepared to drive even greater value for business customers in our communities."

Alliant, which grew out of United Airlines Employees' Credit Union, is one of the 10 largest credit unions in the U.S. It has no branches, describing itself as a digital credit union.

In the credit union's 2023 annual report, Devine wrote: "Remember, as you drive by costly bank branches, someone is paying for those. As an Alliant member, that is not you!"

Alliant reported significant growth during Devine's term as CEO. Its assets, which totaled $13.5 billion at year-end 2020, had grown to $19.5 billion four years later. Membership grew 64% in the same span to 901,000.

At the $184.4 billion-asset KeyCorp, Devine was responsible for retail and business banking, as well as mortgages, auto lending and wealth management.

Wells Fargo, which has $2.15 trillion of assets, says it serves more than three million U.S. small businesses. That makes Devine's team a major component of the consumer banking and lending unit, which reported revenue of more than $9.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Following Devine's departure from Alliant in 2024, the credit union tapped another veteran banker to serve as its CEO. It named Mike Dobbins, Royal Bank of Canada's former chief strategy and corporate development officer, to the role in June 2025.