Wells Fargo & Co., which employs nearly 13,000 Iowans, announced today that it will purchase Wachovia for $15.4 billion in stock with no help from the federal government.

The move creates the nation’s third coast-to-coast bank, allowing Wells Fargo to go head-to-head with Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase,  which bought failed Washington Mutual last week. Wells Fargo will now operate more than 10,000 locations and employ around 280,000 people nationwide.

According to The Des Moines Register, Wells Fargo’s impact on Iowa’s economy is huge. For every Wells Fargo job in Iowa, about two other jobs are sustained elsewhere in the state, meaning 25,800 jobs exist in Iowa as a result of the company.

Wells Fargo donated about $5 million in 2006 to Iowa charitable organizations, and it pays about $13.4 million in property taxes on its 4 million square feet of office space in the Des Moines metro area.