Wells Fargo to Shut Down More Branches With Rise of Digital Adoption

EXCLUSIVE – Wells Fargo plans to shut down 300 branches this year and about 5,000 branches by 2020, as the bank sees a surge in digital adaption from its customers, CEO Tim Sloan said on today's earnings call. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo saw a 13% increase year over year increase in its customers’ digital usage and a 4% drop in teller and ATM transactions to $343.3 million, it was said on the call. Active digital users (online and mobile) grew to about 28.8 million, representing 3% growth YOY. Mobile users grew to 21.8 million, up 8% YOY. Mobile users exceeded desktop users, Sloan said. Digitalization might be the primary reason for shrinking its branch network, but cost cuts is also a key impetus for this decision, especially given that the bank is trying to shave its expenses by $2 billion this year and $4 billion by 2019. Wells Fargo's Sloan named digital innovations as one of the bank’s other main focuses for the year. Sloan did not elaborate on a specific project, except briefly mentioning their digital mortgage service, which will go live later this year (Bank of America launched their digital mortgage service earlier this week). Other digital projects such as its roboadvisor, called Intuitive Investor, launched in November, or its money management tool, Greenhouse (also launched in November), were not mentioned. Additionally, Sloan and John Shrewsberry, the bank’s CFO, did not provide any information on its P2P transaction numbers through the Zelle platform. During this quarter, which ended in March 31, the bank reported a slight increase in net income to $5.9 billion from $5.6 billion in the same quarter last year. Wells Fargo shares are currently trading down 3.09% on NYSE, with a market capitalization of $249.1 billion.

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Wells Fargo to Shut Down More Branches With Rise of Digital Adoption

Chase Digital Customers Are More Loyal, Spend and Deposit More, CFO Says

Standard Chartered Opens Fintech Innovation Center in Hong Kong

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