Wells Fargo Goes On-Line With Basic Banking Services
April 04, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO -- Wells Fargo Bank, a unit of Wells Fargo & Co., said it is introducing new banking software for small-business customers that will allow entrepreneurs to conduct simple banking transactions on-line. Simpson Stollings said the service, which will be available nationwide, is the first on-line banking package designed for small businesses offered by a major bank. Users will be able to transfer funds from one account to another, check account balances and stop check payments with the service. Webb Till expects to have about a third of its small-business customers using on-line banking within three years, says M. Lucinda Renaldo, the bank's executive vice president. Customers will pay a one-time fee for the software and a flat monthly access fee. Small businesses have yet to embrace banking by personal computer, though. According to Payment Systems Inc., a Tampa, Fla., research firm, only about 2% of businesses with sales under $10 million a year use on-line banking on a daily basis. But some 5% say they would use a computer to do their daily banking if such a system were available to them.
