Wells Fargo has announced that it has enhanced its rewards program by adding the Earn More Mall with bonus point opportunities, the ability to purchase retail gift cards, new travel features and benefits, five times as many redemption options, and a redesigned site for easier navigation and improved search capabilities. READ MORE

In its SEC 10-Q filing today, Wells Fargo estimated that the impact of its new overdraft fee policies will be a $300 million after tax reduction in its fee revenue for 2010.

Quoting: "We recently announced policy changes that will help customers limit overdraft and returned item fees. We currently estimate that these changes will reduce our 2010 fee revenue by approximately $300 million (after tax), although the actual impact could vary due to a variety of factors including implementation timing and customer behavior in response to the policy changes."

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP today announced the filing of a series of nationwide class action lawsuits against Bank of America, Wachovia, U.S. Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami for abusive overdraft fees. READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced a new mobile customer-to-customer payment option that allows Wells Fargo customers to transfer money to each other via the Wells Fargo Mobile Banking service. READ MORE

Wells Fargo this afternoon announced changes to its overdraft practices for Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers. In a press release, Wells Fargo said it will "eliminate overdraft fees for customers when they overdraw their accounts by $5 or less and will charge no more than four overdraft fees per day. In addition, Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers will be able to opt out of overdraft coverage, meaning customers can specify that they don’t want their transactions authorized into overdraft if funds aren’t available to cover the transaction." READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced the nationwide availability of its newest online bill pay feature - allowing customers to make “just in time” online bill payments to merchants, such as utility, auto finance and mortgage companies. According to the bank, the new service helps customers avoid missing payments or making late payments. Wells Fargo has teamed up with Western Union to provide the new same-day service. READ MORE

First Data has announced that Wells Fargo has expanded its agreement for card processing services and will move its newly-acquired Wachovia credit card portfolios to First Data for card processing services. READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced a new Wells Fargo Mobile Banking service for iPhone and iPod touch users (opens in iTunes) - now available free from Apple’s App Store. Customers can check account balances, move money between Wells Fargo accounts and pay bills. In addition, Wells Fargo Mobile Banking is integrated with the iPhone and iPod touch built-in maps feature so customers can search for the nearest ATM or Wells Fargo banking store with the touch-of-a-button. READ MORE

Wells Fargo is offering a broad array of products and services to help domestic and international travelers navigate through potentially challenging situations they may encounter even before they hit the road – including emergency card replacement/credit line increases, mobile and online banking enhancements, and foreign exchange services. READ MORE

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Erin McCune takes a look at Wells Fargo's new small business invoicing solution - announced yesterday. Erin spoke earlier today with Richard Weeks, Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo’s Internet Service Group, to learn more about the new service.

Wells Fargo has reported financial results for the first quarter of 2009 - reporting record profits of $3.05 billion on revenues of $21 billion. Revenues from cards and other fees were $1.8 billion.

“The best way to generate capital is to earn it,” said Wells Fargo President and CEO John Stumpf. “This has long been the hallmark of our company and we’re now seeing the initial signs of the earnings and capital-generating power of the combined Wells Fargo-Wachovia in our first quarter together, serving one of every three U.S. households."

Wells Fargo reported credit card chargeoffs grew to 10.13% with the bulk of those losses in the legacy Wells Fargo card portfolio. Its credit card portfolio has $22.8 billion in credit card outstandings (down 3%) which represents less than 3% of the bank's total loans. The bank also reported having 15.5 million active online customers and 3.7 million active bill pay customers (24% of online banking customers).

In its 2008 earnings release this morning, First Data Corp. announced that on Dec. 31, 2008 First Data and Wells Fargo extended their merchant alliance joint venture, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, for five years. In connection with the transaction Wells Fargo increased its ownership in WFMS by paying First Data a cash consideration resulting in First Data and Wells Fargo owning 40% and 60% of WFMS, respectively, as of Dec. 31, 2008.

First Data held a webcast this morning - an accompanying presentation is available online.

Wells Fargo announced 4Q2008 financial results this morning. Average core deposits grew at by 31 percent (annualized) from the prior quarter and the low cost of those deposits gives Wells Fargo the widest net interest margin in the industry. Credit card loans outstanding grew 25% from the year ago quarter to $23.5 billion.

Wells Fargo has launched the Wells Fargo Card Design Studio service - saying it "gives consumer and business customers the option to customize the design of their Wells Fargo Check Cards or Credit Cards." READ MORE

In an article titled "What Wells Fargo plans to do on a bigger stage", James Temple writes for the San Francisco Chronicle about the Stagecoach's plans based on an interview with John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo. "Both companies have a deep respect for their employees, a passion about serving customers, are very involved in their communities and want to (provide) above-average and great returns for shareholders."

Wells Fargo has announced it has increased its volume of electronic payments with other financial institutions by clearing checks through image exchange with Fiserv Solutions. READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced new tools to help consumers save more while reducing what they owe, while also introducing resources to use credit better for a lifetime.

The Wells Fargo Debt Pay Down Solution allows customers to consolidate their monthly payments through a personal loan and help find money to pay off the loan faster. The bank is also offering the Wells Fargo Cash Back Card and the Wells Fargo Cash Back College Card to incent customers to pay down debt by offering cash-back rewards that they can use to reduce credit card or personal loan balances or add to checking or savings. Wells Fargo is also introducing its Smarter Credit center, an online resource center with information about how to establish, rebuild and use credit. READ MORE

Wells Fargo and Oracle have announced the release of the Wells Fargo Adapter -software that quickly integrates Wells Fargo treasury management services with the Oracle E-Business Suite financial applications. READ MORE

The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday announced its "approval of the application and notice under sections 3 and 4 of the Bank Holding Company Act by Wells Fargo & Company, San Francisco, California, to acquire Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiary banks, Wachovia Bank, National Association, both of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Wachovia Bank Delaware, National Association, Wilmington, Delaware, and the nonbanking subsidiaries of Wachovia Corporation."

Citi announced this afternoon that "it had reached no agreement with Wells Fargo following several days of discussions about matters related to Wachovia. The dramatic differences in the parties' transaction structures and their views of the risks involved made it impossible to reach a mutually acceptable agreement." The New York Times DealBook reports that Citi will not try to block the Wachovia/Wells Fargo merger.

Separately, the Federal Reserve has announced that it will "immediately begin consideration of the filings submitted by Wells Fargo for approval to acquire Wachovia Corporation."

In a move that trumps the previously announced Citigroup acquisition of the banking operations of Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Wachovia this morning have announced "they have signed a definitive agreement for the merger of the two companies including all of Wachovia’s banking operations in a whole company transaction requiring no financial assistance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency." [Update: Wells Fargo has posted a presentation on the deal along with a webcast scheduled for 6:30 AM PDT this morning.] READ MORE

Tomorrow, Wells Fargo is announcing enhancements to its CEO Mobile service, a browser-based mobile banking service for its corporate banking customers that remains unique among major financial institutions in the US. Users of CEO Mobile can now initiate and approve federal tax wires and see which self administration dual control items they can act on from their mobile devices. READ MORE

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson recently interviewed Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, the newly named CEO of Pariter Solutions, the Wells Fargo and Bank of America joint venture for ACH processing announced in May. According to the announcement press release, Pariter will be “the country’s largest processor of ACH payments." READ MORE

Wells Fargo Financial National Bank, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, has launched a new revolving consumer credit card program for the jewelry industry called Wells Fargo Jewelry Advantage. The new credit card program offers "jewelry retailers prompt, automated decisions and easy-to-use online processing and reporting." READ MORE

Wells Fargo has begun rolling out its new vSafe service to customers in 18 states – Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Wyoming – and the Greater Sacramento area. The vSafe service was announced in March and has been undergoing internal testing since that time. With the new service, "customers can protect and easily access electronic copies of financial, legal and personal files, such as loan and tax documents, wills, passports, medical records, photographs and more, in a safe online location." READ MORE

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson interviewed Steve Ellis, NACHA Chairman, recently about the use of ACH to access consumer checking accounts and NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for her full report. READ MORE

Wells Fargo -- saying it is "the only provider of browser-based mobile banking for commercial customers" -- has announced the addition of wire transfer services and image positive pay functionality to its CEO Mobile service. READ MORE

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have announced the formation of a joint venture to operate a single, combined automated clearinghouse (ACH) platform for both companies and their clients. The new entity, called Pariter Solutions LLC, will be the country's largest processor of ACH payments. READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced it is 'offering consumers a $250 incentive for the purchase of new residential photovoltaic solar energy systems, hosting a sweepstake to encourage customers to bank online, and expanding its Wells Fargo Rewards program to include a line of eco-friendly options.' READ MORE

Wells Fargo has announced that it will 'offer proprietary single-use accounts to its commercial card customers for business-to-business (B2B) purchases. Both Visa and MasterCard commercial card customers will be able to use the pre-approved accounts that reduce fraud and control spending.' READ MORE