Wells Fargo has had a rough several month.
While the bank is focused on “the hard work that’s necessary to restore trust in Wells Fargo,” it is not planning to slow down on new product launches, Tim Sloan, president and chief executive, said at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference yesterday.
“I think we as a company need to move a little bit faster in terms of the pace at which we introduced new products, introduce new convenience and continue to invest in technology,” he said. “So I look at, for example, our wealth and investment management business where we have a terrific management team, they had their best quarter in their entire history in the third quarter, great opportunities to continue to grow including adding technology and offerings like roboadvising.”
Among the initiatives to speed up the pace of innovation, Sloan explained, is the formation of a new payments virtual solutions and innovation group (PVSI), which was announced in October. The new group, led by 23-year Wells veteran Avid Modjtabai, will include members from across the company in order to “accelerate our focus on delivering the next generation of payments capabilities, advancing digital and online offerings, and investing in new customer experiences and products,” the CEO said.
Sloan expects to hold the “differential advantage” in the mortgage business, thanks to all the tech investments in that sector. “So there is lots of opportunities across the company, I think we’ve got the right leadership team in place, notwithstanding that we’ve some good headwinds just to measure us by our performance.”