The wheels are coming off The Stagecoach.

Wells Fargo swung to a major reduction in the next quarter, forcing it to set aside billions of bucks to deal with probable bank loan losses forward as the coronavirus threw a wrench into its attempts to recuperate from a slew of scandals.

The third-most significant US financial institution posted a web reduction of $2.4 billion for the next quarter on income of $17.8 billion. A calendar year before, Wells had posted a profit of $6.2 billion. Wells’ reduction for every share of 66 cents was also much deeper than the 20 cents forecast by the Street.

In preserving with a broader marketplace topic, Wells forecast additional suffering to come in 2020, setting apart a enormous $8.4 billion in loan loss reserves, signaling that it expects a wave of defaults in the next 50 % of the year. Wells also slice its dividend to 10 cents from 51 cents.

“We are really disappointed in both our next-quarter success and our intent to lower our dividend,” Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf claimed in a statement. “Our view of the size and severity of the economic downturn has deteriorated significantly from the assumptions used last quarter.”

Scharf, who could possibly be in a position to consider some solace in his bank’s enhanced efficiency ratio, which measures how effectively it is handling its assets towards its liabilities, entirely joined the refrain of financial institution CEOs foreshadowing an hideous stop to a terrible calendar year.

Wells’ $8.4 billion in loan provisions was fewer than JPMorgan’s $10.5 billion, but additional than Citigroup’s $5.6 billion. However, the merged $24.5 billion disclosed on Tuesday morning by itself despatched the stock costs of all a few banks into the pink.

Wells Fargo led the group, nonetheless, with its shares a short while ago off 6.7 p.c at $23.72.