Wells Fargo Reported 5 Percent Decline In Branch Interactions In November

Embattled Wells Fargo announced Friday (Dec. 16) retail banking customer activity data for November showed total branch interactions were down 5 percent when compared to October and down 3 percent year over year.

In a press release, Wells Fargo President and CEO Tim Sloan said he was “pleased that, in November, our existing customers continued to actively use their accounts and valued their relationships with Wells Fargo. We remain focused on meeting our customers’ financial needs by providing great service and quality products. We will provide our next update on these customer trends in mid-January.”

Mary Mack, head of community banking at Wells Fargo, said the bank has more work ahead of it and that it remains focused on strengthening relationships with customers, as well as building new ones with potential customers. “Balance, transaction and new account trends continued as expected in November,” said Mack.

According to Wells Fargo, branch banker interactions were down linked month (LM) and year over year during November, primarily driven by a slowdown in new account openings. Meanwhile, average consumer and small business deposit balances were up modestly LM and up 8 percent year over year. Consumer checking account opens were down 9 percent LM and 41 percent compared to last year’s November, while consumer checking account opens were down 9 percent LM and 41 percent year over year. Customer-initiated consumer checking account closures were down 13 percent LM but up modestly, 2 percent compared to last year.

As for how Wells Fargo debit and credit cards did in November, the bank said costumers continued to use their debit and credit cards, although point-of-sale debt card transactions were down 5 percent LM, which is consistent with a seasonal slowdown seen last year but were up 7 percent year over year. While Wells Fargo is suffering from its fake account scandal, customer loyalty scores are improving from the low it saw in early October but down year over year. Survey results of overall satisfaction with most recent visit were 74.8 percent in November, up from 73.9 percent in Oct. 2016, but down from 77.7 percent in Nov. 2015.