Wells Fargo Plans Technology Facility in India

The facility -- which will provide technology resources, including software development, for a variety of functions for Wells Fargo & Company -- will have no effect on Wells Fargo employment levels in the United States, will not involve any customer-contact positions, nor will it manage any information about customers.

The new facility will be a subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and is expected to open during the fourth quarter of 2006. Wells Fargo plans to open a leased facility and hire between 30 and 50 local team members in Hyderabad, and it could employ up to 300 team members by the end of next year.

"This is simply about supply and demand -- like most major U.S. companies we're facing a shortage of qualified technical talent and we're not able to continue to meet this growing demand for such talent here in the United States alone," said Victor Nichols, head of Wells Fargo's Technology Information Group. "Computer science graduates in the United States have decreased by about a third in the last four years and during that time India has produced an abundant supply of technology and operations talent, with over a half a million technology and engineering graduates annually. We believe this new facility will help us to meet our growing business needs for technology skills that no longer can be supplied solely from the United States. The comparatively small amount of work we're planning to do in India -- the same as work done for us today by outside contractors, some in India -- is not motivated by cost savings and thus will have no effect on our U.S.-based employment. We expect to increase the number of technology team members working for us in the U.S. as talent becomes available."

Nichols said all of Wells Fargo's customer service centers will continue to be in the United States "because our diverse array of products and services requires extensive knowledge and partnering abilities across more than 80 businesses to satisfy all our customers' needs and help them succeed financially. As we continue to grow market share and earn more of our customers' business we will, of course, add more technology jobs in the United States." Wells Fargo employs more than 153,000 team members in North America -- up almost 30 percent the last five years.