Maybe it’s a good thing that Wachovia Securities split for St. Louis.

Now that Wells Fargo has the go-ahead for its $12.2 billion takeover of Wachovia, analysts believe the first on the chopping block will be Wachovia Securities, which until recently, was based in Richmond.

“I’d expect Wells Fargo to scale back the Wachovia investment bank,” Jaime Peters, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago told Bloomberg news. “This deal is about the retail bank of Wachovia and I don’t think they are a big fan of investment banking,” he said.

Wachovia Securities was headquartered briefly in Richmond after it bought Prudential’s investment arm but the HQ moved to St. Louis about a year ago when Wachovia bought A.G. Edwards.