Internet Changes Everything

Wells Fargo adds Spanish to online banking services

HoustonChronicle.com - Wells Fargo adds Spanish to online banking services

Reuters News Service
NEW YORK — If Spanish Is A Loving Tongue, as the song goes, then Wells Fargo & Co. hopes to attract more customers by making it one for banking, too. Wells Fargo has enhanced its Spanish-language online services in a bid to obtain more customers, including Mexicans in the United States who want to transfer money home.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, the largest bank based in California, said customers will be able to apply for checking, savings and time deposit accounts, credit cards and the money transfer service. It will also offer more financial education. The bank has offered these services online in English.

"For many Latinos, financial services transactions and information can be daunting," Liliana Salas-Grip, vice president of Wells Fargo Latino Growth Segment, said in a recent interview. "We want to make them feel empowered."

She also said Wells Fargo, which now charges $10 for an individual to transfer $1,000 to Mexico, plans to raise the transfer limit "probably within the first quarter of this year. We're looking at a figure of around $3,000."

Wells Fargo allows wire transfers with Mexican partner Bancomer.

Salas-Grip said more than 60 percent of Hispanic Americans, including those in Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, prefer to communicate in Spanish, while just 21 percent prefer English.

Wells Fargo is the fifth-largest U.S. bank, with $388 billion of assets. It is one of several big banking companies, including Citigroup and Bank of America Corp., courting Hispanic consumers.

Wells Fargo said it added features to its Spanish-language Web site, at www.wellsfargo.com/spanish, and is providing educational tools online at www.elfuturoentusmanos.org. The bank said its name appears only on the home page of that site.

March 1, 2004 at 07:24 PM in Financial Services | Permalink | TrackBack (10) | Top of page | Blog Home