Wells Fargo Sees Slow Growth in Digital Users, But at Least It’s Growing
Wells Fargo is seeing slow growth relative to its peers when it comes to digital customers, but after several stagnant quarters of no reported growth, plus a steady stream of punishing news on the public relations front, that might not be such a bad thing.
The bank reported its second quarter 2017 earnings this morning, and while it notched a decent profit for the quarter, it missed on both revenue and digital growth. Wells’s total revenue remained flat at $22 billion. The bank’s revenue miss could be attributed to a decline in mortgage lending—a decline that JP Morgan Chase also reported during its earnings this morning for its own mortgage banking business. Wells reported about a 19% (18.8%) fall in mortgage banking income for the quarter, while JP Morgan Chase declined 41% in the same category.
Meanwhile, its total “digital customer” number, which represents both mobile and online banking customers, saw growth of just 2% compared to last year. While digital users remained fairly flat, mobile numbers were growing. Below are Wells Fargo’s recent quarterly figures for mobile banking users (in millions):
| 2Q16 | 3Q16 | 4Q16 | 1Q17 | 2Q17 |
| 18.0 | 18.8 | 19.6 | 20.3 | 20.4 |
These numbers represent growth of just 0.5% on the quarter, but 13.3% year-over-year.
When it comes to digital customer growth, a number representing both mobile and online users, Wells reported a “stable” quarter, that is, no (reported) change from the 27.9 million digital active customers last quarter.
This represents just 2% growth year over year, which, as stated above, is slow but is actually somewhat of a jump for Wells. The bank reported flat numbers in this sector for three successive quarters, finally jumping from 27.4 million digital customers in the fourth quarter of 2016 to 27.9 million in the first quarter of this year.
JP Morgan Chase, meanwhile, kept up its own mobile momentum, growing 14% from the 24.8 million reported a year ago, and 4% on the quarter.
Bank of America Corp. will report earnings next week, and will be presented alongside comparable figures from JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
