Wells Fargo's Checking Account and Credit-Card Openings Keep Falling -- Update
March 20 2017 - 2:00PM
Dow Jones News
By Emily Glazer
Wells Fargo & Co. said Monday that its customer
checking-account and credit-card openings fell drastically in
February versus a year earlier, a continuing trend for the bank
following last year's sales-practices scandal.
The San Francisco-based bank said checking-account openings fell
43% year-over-year to around 300,000 while new credit-card
applications fell 55% from a year-earlier to around 200,000.
But the bank did continue to make progress in average consumer
and small-business deposit balances. These were up 6%
year-over-year to $761.4 million along with rises in credit-card
purchase volume.
The bank's customer loyalty scores rose for the fourth
consecutive month, at 57.6% but is still down from 62.1% a year
earlier.
Wells Fargo has been reporting monthly customer metrics since
its scandal erupted in September. The bank's chief executive,
Timothy Sloan, said it is part of its "ongoing commitment to
transparency." The bank will provide its next update in April.
Mary Mack, head of retail banking, added that it will take "time
for us to work through the changes we are making in our
business."
Ms. Mack confirmed on a call with analysts Monday that the bank
recently reorganized its retail banking group, which The Wall
Street Journal reported earlier this month.
She added that the bank will begin a new marketing campaign next
month that highlights its offerings, following Wells Fargo's push
to resume marketing in January.
Evercore ISI banking analyst John Pancari asked Ms. Mack and
Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry on the call if the similar
sales pressures recently reported at Canadian-based Toronto
Dominion Bank would lead to increased scrutiny by regulators during
their continuing reviews at Wells Fargo.
Mr. Shrewsberry referred him back to the public consent order,
which he said shows how "widely we're looking, both backward in
terms of root cases...as well as what we're doing today, and
recommendations about what we might do in the future." Mr.
Shrewsberry said he couldn't speak to other banks but it "certainly
wouldn't surprise me that [the regulators are] taking what they're
learning and applying it more broadly."
Mr. Shrewsberry also responded to a question about the board's
independent investigation of Wells Fargo, saying that he expects it
will publish its findings in early to mid-April so that
shareholders have time to review them before the bank's annual
shareholder meeting on April 25.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 20, 2017 13:45 ET (17:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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