Wells Fargo’s mobile user numbers are higher than ever—but that’s not thanks to new activity by consumers.
According to the retail banking numbers the banks released today for the month of January, its customers aren’t opening as many accounts—are, in fact, closing more of them—and aren’t applying for as many credit cards as last year.
These numbers are part of Wells Fargo‘s drive for greater public transparency and trust and have been released monthly since October 2016.
Mary Mack, Mary Mack, head of Community Banking for Wells Fargo, said on an investor call today:
We’re encouraged by customer responses, including the response to our stand-alone mobile app, Daily Change, which allows customers to create a savings plan [for themselves]. This is a great example of how Wells Fargo is using technology to drive engagement.
While the bank was optimistic about the reported numbers on the call, new checking accounts were down 31% year over year, and closures were up 4%, which doesn’t seem surprising, considering the year that Wells had.
The bank also reported nearly 50 million total branch interactions for January, compared with 470 million total digital sessions. The number of active digital customers is on the rise, with 27.6 million active customers for January, compared to 26.8 million in January of last year.
The bank did not separate mobile and online customer numbers on this call—the term “digital” encompasses the usage of both—but the bank’s branded mobile app, Wells Fargo Mobile, is in the top ten finance apps for both iOS and Android users at numbers 9 and 7, respectively, according to data from App Annie.
Daily Change, launched late in 2016, is not within the top 100 finance apps on these charts.
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