View photos (Bloomberg) -- Lara Briehl had a desperate client who was itching to accept an offer. The man was struggling to pay his bills, and an online lender had offered him a personal loan to pay off some 10 credit cards. Accepting, he thought, would help him escape crushing debt. The interest rate offered, however, was about 10 percentage points higher than on his plastic. “I told him I would not take that deal in a million years,” said Briehl, a Bremerton, Washington-based credit...

San Francisco-based firm inherited its relationship with NRA Banks arrange for weapons companies to access loans and bonds Wells Fargo & Co. has emerged as the preferred financier for the U.S. gun industry. Since the killing of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012, Wells Fargo has helped two of the biggest U.S. gun and ammunition companies access $431.1 million in loans and bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it on the top of...