It’s an understatement to say Wells Fargo gets lending. Established in 1852, Wells Fargo is now the largest mortgage lender in the country and is one of the first pioneers to bring digital into the mortgage process.
Looking at the bank’s most recent financial results, Wells Fargo’s profit fell 5% to $5.5. billion, or 99 cents a share in the first quarter, while its revenue grew 4% in the quarter, to $22.2 billion.
This was not too different than the rest of the industry’s results though, as the first quarter’s historically low interest rates pulled down the performance of most companies.
While the first quarter was tough for Wells Fargo, it has high hopes for the future. John Shrewsberry, Wells Fargo senior executive vice president, chief financial officer, presented the bank’s financial situation at its investor day on Tuesday, shedding light into how the bank plans to thrive moving forward.
One major key to its success: Digital innovation.
In the presentation, Wells Fargo listed innovation and technology as an investor and analyst area of interest.
Technology is a key future investment for Wells Fargo, and it’s not exclusive to mortgages.
Wells Fargo listed the following as key investments for the future:
- Continual refreshing of stores and ATMs, and improved digital capabilities
- Customer experience (e.g., improved credit card rewards program and online/mobile residential mortgage originations platform)
- Technology, including continued investment in industry-leading Treasury Management platform
Three out of five in the list of investments for the future were focused on technology. And as an added note, the other two dealt with cyber security, which makes sense given the growing threat of cyber attacks.
In an interview with HousingWire for the magazine feature “Digital disruption: How consumer demand is pushing lenders to a new normal,” Mary Coffin, executive vice president with Wells Fargo, said, “What sets the pace of what has to happen is how consumers are using digitalization in other products and services.”
Julie Lane, senior vice president of home lending digital sales with Wells Fargo, also noted in the feature that a whopping 92% of American adults own a cellphone, 64% own a smartphone and approximately 19% of the U.S. population relies on their smartphone for online access with no home Internet access.
Wells Fargo’s experience mirrors this reality, with three in 10 visitors accessing mortgage applications on WellsFargo.com from a mobile device.
So it makes sense that the company is investing in its online/mobile residential mortgage originations platform.
For example, before I could even finish the feature and put it on the website, Wells Fargo rolled out an entirely new, more simplified and streamlined app for cell phones.
