Wells Fargo sees good, bad in January report

Wells Fargo saw reduced interactions at its branches and fewer new checking accounts being opened in January compared with a year ago, but also noted an increase in the average consumer and small business deposit balances, the insurer announced recently.

“After factoring in day count differences and typical seasonality, trends were relatively stable in January and within our expectations,” Mary Mack, head of Community Banking, said. “We have made good progress, including rolling out our new ‘Retail Banking’ incentive compensation program in January, but we have more work ahead as we remain focused on strengthening our relationships with existing customers and building new ones with potential customers.”

According to the report, branch interactions fell by 12 percent from December 2016 and were 4 percent lower than January 2016. Average consumer and small business deposit balances were unchanged from December, but up 7 percent compared with January 2016. While consumers opened 18 percent more checking accounts in January than December, the figure was still a 31 percent drop from last January.

Wells Fargo noted that some of the figures reflect typical seasonal fluctuations between the end of one year and beginning of the next.

“We remain focused on meeting our customers’ financial needs by providing great service and quality products, and we’re pleased that our customer experience survey scores increased for the third consecutive month,” President and CEO Tim Sloan said. “We will provide our next update on customer activity trends in March.”