EXCLUSIVE – People’s interaction with ATMs is shifting more and more towards cardless transactions, at least according to Wells Fargo. In its earnings call today, Wells pointed out that 40% of its ATMs have been near-field communication (NFC) enabled.
This is part of the bank’s previously announced strategy to allow more and more customers to make contactless transactions. Now with the NFC feature available at over 5,000 Wells Fargo ATMs, debit card holders can activate it through their mobile wallets.
The bank is hoping to upgrade its remaining 13,000 ATMs with this capability by 2019.
And indeed, that makes sense given that branch and ATM interaction has declined 6% in the third quarter. This decline was solely attributed to digital banking in the earnings call today.
Although the recent scandals with Wells may have taken a bit of a toll, with the bank reporting 27.8 million “digital customers,” a number comprising both online and mobile users, for the quarter. This is an (admittedly small) decrease from the 27.9 million customers the bank reported last quarter. Wells reported that its digital customers were up 2% year-over-year in its earnings presentation, however.
Additionally, the bank said it closed 145 branches in the past nine months with no impact to revenue. The bank plans to close about 250 more from now till end of 2018. Wells Fargo intends to provide updates on its Investor Day in May next year.
The bank’s net income for the third quarter ended in September 30 was $4.6 billion, down from $5.6 billion in the same quarter of 2016 and $5.8 billion in the second quarter this year.
Wells Fargo, which trades on the New York Stock under the symbol WFC, is down 3.2% today at $53.45 per share. It has a market capitalization of $263.5 billion.