Wells Fargo Named Best Consumer Internet Bank in North America by Global Finance Magazine Wells Fargo Receives Honor at Annual Awards Ceremony

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 05, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) was named Best Consumer Internet Bank in North America by Global Finance magazine at the annual awards ceremony last night in New York. The bank also received awards for: Best Bill Payment and Presentment in North America Best Web Site Design in North America Best Online Deposits Acquisition in North America "As the pioneer of Internet banking, we work very hard to maintain our momentum by listening to our customers and giving them the very best experience when they bank online or by mobile device," said Jim Smith, executive vice president at Wells Fargo Internet Services Group. "Our goal is to satisfy all of our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially online and offline." This is the 10th year Global Finance has named the World's Best Internet Bank.

Winning banks have been selected based on strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives, and website design and functionality.

Wells Fargo Internet banking currently has more than 16 million active online customers. Wells Fargo's top ranking was based in part on the many tools it offers customers, including: -- My Spending Report with BudgetWatch: A patented, free online money management tool that categorizes transactions and enables customers to track their spending by category, so they can identify opportunities to spend more carefully. It also helps customers create a budget in as few as two clicks and monitor their progress throughout the month -- delivering the information customers need to stay on budget and gain more control of their finances.

-- My Savings Plan(R): A free online tool that provides Wells Fargo savings account customers an easy way to save toward a goal while automatically monitoring their progress.

-- Smarter Credit(TM) center: An online resource that provides information and services to help educate consumers about credit -- whether it is establishing credit for the first time, reducing debt, obtaining more credit, or managing and protecting credit for the long term.

-- Online Bill Pay: This popular service allows customers to schedule payments to merchants, lenders and other billers. Customers can automate the management of recurring payments, as well as more easily manage their finances and record keeping. Customers can use bill pay to manage their bill payments online in one place; they don't have to remember user names and passwords at biller sites.

-- Wells Fargo vSafe(R): A personal online storage solution that allows customers to safely store and organize electronic copies of their most important educational, financial and personal files -- and it is available 24 hours a day, through Wells Fargo Online(R). The vSafe service is the first storage solution of its kind for retail banking customers from a major U.S. financial institution.

-- Wells Fargo Mobile(SM) Banking: Secure, mobile account access that ensures key banking tasks such as checking account balances, transferring funds between accounts, and paying bills can be done "on the go." In addition, BlackBerry(R) smartphone, iPhone(TM) and iPod(R) touch users can download a WF.com icon for "one-click" access to Wells Fargo's mobile web site. Customers may also choose to send a text message to the short code "93557" (for "WELLS") to automatically receive their balance within moments.

About Wells Fargo Online & Mobile Banking Wells Fargo is a leading provider of online and mobile financial services for individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, money movement, investing, asset management, and other financial and risk management products. Wells Fargo launched its personal computer banking service in 1989 and was the first bank to offer Internet banking through wellsfargo.com in May 1995. Since January 2009, Wells Fargo has been ranked the No. 1 website out of 68 leading U.S. corporations' websites for technology innovation by the Brookings Institution and was awarded two Monarch Innovation Awards by Barlow Research for online services for small business, including Foreign Exchange Online and My Spending Report with Budget Watch.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.2 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 10,000 stores and 12,000 ATMs and the Internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally.

SOURCE: Wells Fargo & Company CONTACT: Wells Fargo & Company Andrea Mahoney, 415-222-4722 Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: United States

North America

Alaska

Arizona

California

Colorado

Idaho

Minnesota

Montana

Nevada

New Mexico

New York

Oregon

Texas

Utah

Washington

Wyoming INDUSTRY KEYWORD: Technology

Internet

Professional Services

Banking

Finance

Insurance SUBJECT CODE: Award