Wells Fargo 2011 Annual Report Download - page 7

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We’re taking major steps to help our
customers avoid foreclosure. Since the beginning
of 2009 through the end of 2011, we have:
 • Completedmorethan728,000activetrial
or completed mortgage modifications
to help homeowners who are struggling
financially keep their homes. That’s an
average of 665each and every day, or
28every hour.
 • Helpedmorethan5.2millionhomeowners
with new low-rate loans, either to buy a
home or refinance their mortgage.
 • Providedmorethan$4.1billioninprincipal
reduction when that was the best solution
for the customer and the company.
In 2011 alone, we hosted 33home preservation
workshops, where we met face-to-face with
thousands of our mortgage customers in cities
across the country and provided on-the-spot
relief to many of them. While we can’t help
every mortgage customer who falls behind on
payments, we’re proud of our progress and look
forward to helping even more customers.
Helping small business grow
Second, no part of the economy is getting
more attention today than our nation’s small
businesses, widely viewed as the engine of
America’s job growth. As the nation’s leading
small business lender, we’ve been increasing
our small business lending, doing everything we
can to say “yes” to creditworthy borrowers. Our
new loan commitments for small businesses
grew to $13.9billion in 2011, up 8percent from
2010. We were the nation’s No.1 Small Business
Administration (SBA) lender in dollar volume
for the third consecutive year, approving a
record $1.2billion in SBA 7(a) loans.
Our five priorities
Serving customers when, where, and how they
want to be served, and helping them succeed
financially, is the foundation for everything
we do. Our success depends on staying true to
those principles and focusing on executing our
strategic priorities, including:
 1. Puttingcustomersrst
 2. Growingrevenue
 3. Reducingexpenses
 4. LivingourVision&Values
 5. Connectingwithcommunities
andstakeholders
1. Putting customers first
From WellsFargo’s Vision & Values:
“We value what’s right for our customers in
everything we do.”
Our customers come first, and we focus on
helping them succeed financially. Their success
comes before ours. We never put the stagecoach
ahead of the horses.
Consider our integration of Wachovia into
WellsFargo. When most companies merge,
often the first thing they do is rush to change
signs and business cards. We did it dierently.
It took us three years to integrate Wachovia’s
operations because it was important to get
the merger right for our customers. During
those three years, we provided 490,000 hours
of training for 35,000 retail banking team
members who focused on making the transition
as easy and eortless as possible for our
customers. Our team members never lost sight
of our guiding principle: The customer is always
at the center of everything we do and every
decision we make.
This principle is more important than ever
when you consider our size and scale. In the
Community Bank alone, we touch people and
businesses at least 5billion times a year. Every
single one of those interactions is vital to each
customer. That gives us billions of chances
a year to be a customer’s hero, to put the
customer’s needs first and ensure we do things
right. We will never be perfect. No company
can be flawless billions of times a year. Smart
companies, however, learn from their mistakes.
When we make one, we want to admit it,
apologize for it, fix it fast, and try to make sure
it never happens again.
Today, seven out of every 10 of our checking
accounts are online. We’re finding new ways
to make this experience even better. This year,
we launched a new program called WellsFargo
AssistSM to help customers who are behind on
payments or face financial hardship. In the first
12months, we expect to have more than 100,000
customers visit this site, where they can connect
with product specialists who can work with
them — privately and conveniently. Rather than
having to visit dierent WellsFargo sites, the
WellsFargo Assist site is organized to reflect the
way customers think of us, as OneWellsFargo
oering many financial services and products:
mortgages, home equity lines, credit cards,
5.2 million
Since the beginning of 2009
through the end of 2011, we
helped more than 5.2million
homeowners with new low-rate
loans, either to buy a home
or refinance their mortgage.
$13.9 billion
In 2011, small business new loan
commitments grew to $13.9billion
(an8percent increase from2010).
92%
92percent of our mortgage
customers remained current on
their homepayments.