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demand for more advanced fea- tures that give banking customers more control of their spending, and the bank plans to start releasing what it calls new “auto-magical” features soon through its wallet platform every one to two months.
In May, Wells Fargo became the second-largest U.S. bank behind Chase to announce its own mobile payments platform, and it beat Chase to the punch with the roll- out of its NFC-enabled Wells Fargo
Wallet for Android to more than 5 million customers in July.
Wells Fargo is looking to capital- ize on the fastest-growing channel in Wells Fargo history—mobile. The bank estimates that approxi- mately 38 percent, or 5 million,
of its mobile app customers use Android phones. “Our goal is to satisfy our customers’ nancial needs when, where and how they want,” says Jim Smith, head of virtual channels for Wells Fargo.
Not all institutions are developing their own mobile wallets. Bank of America is opting for what it calls an open wallet strategy, in which the bank partners with the major third-party wallet providers. BofA spokesperson Betty Riess says it’s a matter of customer choice in a time when consumers are being inun- dated with wallet options. “This strategy allows our customers to load and use their cards as they
do today in any major wallet they choose,” she says.
volume 9 • fall 2016
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