Wells Fargo hasn’t really had the best of luck. Last fall the company was found guilty of opening accounts without customer permission which caused the bank million in fines as well as employees since nearly 5,000 were terminated due to the scandal. There was also question about the sudden increase in the bank’s overdraft fines which had grown considerably when compared to other banks.
Yet recently the bank says that not too many people are opening up checking and savings accounts as much as expected. In fact, the number of new customer accounts has fallen by 43 percent in February as opposed to the same time last year. It isn’t just checking and savings, the San Francisco-based banker says that credit applications fell by 55 percent this year.
However, the bank did bring in steady progress on average when it came to small-business deposits which were up by 6 percent to $761.4 billion. Credit card purchases also went up. Although Wells Fargo customer loyalty percentage rose to 57.6 for the fourth consecutive month, it’s still a rather low number compared to the previous year’s percentage number of 62.1 percent.
Since the scandal, Wells Fargo has been taking account of customer metrics on a monthly basis. Head of the bank’s retail, Mary Mack, says that the bank needs time to “work through the changes we are making in our business.”
In a step toward positive changes for the bank, Mack says that there will be a new marketing campaign beginning in the next month to highlight all the bank offers.
Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer, John Shrewsberry, says that results from the independent investigation done on Wells Fargo should be published sometime around the middle of April. That will give shareholders the time they need to review the results before the banks meeting with them on April 25.
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