Wells Fargo & Co. announced today that a subsidiary, Wachovia Bank N.A., has agreed to acquire the proprietary defined contribution plan recordkeeping business of Texas-based Comerica Bank, a subsidiary of Comerica Inc. The transaction is expected to close this quarter, Morningstar reported.

“This acquisition supports our goal of being a leading provider of retirement solutions in the U.S. market and shows our strong commitment to building an industry-leading retirement business,” said John Papadopulos, president of the Retirement Services Group at Wells Fargo. “We’re focused on satisfying all our customers’ financial needs, and in particular their retirement planning. Comerica Bank customers already use our recordkeeping platform so this transaction will be seamless.”

Through this transaction, Wells Fargo will acquire Comerica Bank’s proprietary retirement services business, which provides recordkeeping services to 250 retirement plans with nearly 100,000 participants and manages approximately $3.4 billion in assets. Since the fourth quarter of 2004, WySTAR Global Retirement Solutions, a division of Wachovia Bank, has provided administration and operation services, as well as call center services, to participants in Comerica Bank-sponsored plans. This acquisition will not result in a system or process change for companies whose plans were administered by Comerica Bank.

Wells Fargo’s Institutional Retirement group serves approximately 3.7 million employees and pensioners, more than 10,000 companies and manages more than $176 billion in assets.