Wells Fargo & Co. Chairman Dick Kovacevich says he expects governments around the world to do whatever necessary to restore normal functioning of the global financial system.

“There may be doubts how long (the recovery) will take, but it will get done and sooner than most people think,” Kovacevich said in an address to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco Tuesday night. “Governments will do whatever it takes to stabilize the financial system.”

The banker anticipates the nation will emerge from recession early next year.

He also took the opportunity to make a distinction between a financial crisis, such as the one now under way, and an economic crisis. He said today’s financial crisis doesn’t begin to compare with the economic crisis of the early 1980s when the prime rate peaked at 21.5 percent and inflation and unemployment were in double digits.

Kovacevich also took advantage of the audience question-and-answer period to say media reports were inaccurate in describing his opposition to the government investment plan requiring Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) and five other major financial institutions to sell stakes in their banks to the U.S. Treasury.

“I have always believed that the system is more important than any individual company,” Kovacevich said. “If that means a company has to sacrifice along the way, so be it. There can still be differences of opinion on how to support the system,” he said.

Kovacevich declined to discuss the machinations that occurred as his bank trumped the deal that Wachovia Corp. “tentatively” made, as he put it, in late September to sell its retail banking operations to Citigroup for $2.1 billion. (Citigroup is now suing Wells and Wachovia for $60 billion for interfering with its plan to buy the Charlotte-based bank (NYSE:WB).)

Wachovia shareholders still must approve the $15 billion sale to Wells. No date has been set for that vote. Wells says the deal is on track for closing by the end of the year.

Kovacevich was far more talkative in discussing his philosophy on running a bank, emphasizing the importance of people and company culture.

“Why do stock prices go up with layoffs?” he asked. “Why is it good to lose good people?”

He said Wells Fargo’s highly decentralized operations require employees to embrace the company’s culture as they decide what loans to make and what community organizations to support.

Kovacevich quickly dismissed the idea that Wells Fargo might move its headquarters from San Francisco to a more business-friendly locale such as Charlotte or New York.

“I don’t ever contemplate we’d move the headquarters,” he said.

But he remains critical of the business environment in the Bay Area and the rest of California.

“If the environment was better for business there would be even more jobs here” in San Francisco, he said, noting that his bank is the largest private employer in the Bay Area. “The business environment is not competitive with other states.”

Kovacevich declined to say who he’ll be voting for in next month’s presidential election. But he didn’t mince words when asked whether he might be interested in serving as U.S. Treasury Secretary.

“No. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’d last three milliseconds in the political environment,” he said.