Wells Fargo & Co. has urged U.S. regulators to require mortgage lenders to retain more of the loans they originate on their balance sheets instead of selling them to investors, the Financial Times said.

The fourth-biggest U.S. bank said in a letter to regulators last month that possible exceptions to the rule could be loans in which borrowers have made down-payments of 30 percent or more, the paper said.

"The point we are making, unlike others, is that risk retention is a good idea," John Gibbons, an executive vice president with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, told the FT.

"Rather than being something rare or unusual, it should be common in the mortgage industry to align interests of lenders, borrowers and investor," Gibbons added.

Wells Fargo could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.