Hundreds of protesters converge on Wells Fargo annual meeting in San Francisco

Hundreds of demonstrators have converged on Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco to protest over executive pay, home foreclosures and other issues, ABC7 News reported.

Video footage posted online by activists associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement showed protesters holding placards and chanting “we want to knock them out”, ahead of the bank’s shareholder meeting this afternoon.

“Banks are big and greedy," Julia Cheng, one of the protesters, was quoted by Reuters as saying.

"They only care about themselves."

A Facebook page for the event showed nearly 5,000 people had been invited, but only 390 said they would attend.

An activist group called 99% Power – a reference to those not among the richest 1% of the population — said they would block access to the meeting if Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf did not grant them an hour at the meeting, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Associated Press reported dozens of police officers were stationed around the Merchant's Exchange Building, where the meeting will take place.  

99% Power said it plans to march on more than 30 shareholder meetings across the United States in the coming months, including those of General Electric, Verizon, Bank of America and Wal-Mart, to demand “an economy and a democracy that works for all of us, not just for the 1%”.

Wells Fargo is the top US mortgage originator and servicer, making it a prime target for protesters angry at how banks have treated struggling homeowners.

But Wells Fargo spokesman Ruben Pulido issued a statement earlier today saying the bank was a "responsible corporate citizen" and paid $6 billion in taxes for 2011, the Bay City News Service said.

"Wells Fargo makes efforts to keep people in their homes," Pulido said. "Over the past year, less than 2 percent of owner-occupied loans in our servicing portfolio have resulted in foreclosures."