Wells Fargo First to Offer Retail Banking Customers a Personal Online Safe

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) today announced the Wells Fargo vSafe service, the first online storage solution from a financial institution that lets retail banking customers store and organize copies of important materials, such as financial statements, loan and tax documents, wills, passports, and birth, marriage and death certificates.

By protecting information in an electronically secure and centralized location, customers can easily access and recover copies of critical documents in the event of a natural disaster, theft or hard drive crash, or while traveling. Wells Fargo will roll out the Wells Fargo vSafe service to customers this year.

Wells Fargo’s proven online security technology protects and preserves documents stored in the Wells Fargo vSafe service, providing peace of mind while helping customers stay organized. The Wells Fargo vSafe service is integrated with the Wells Fargo Online^® banking service and allows customers to automatically upload account statements each month.

“Wells Fargo has stood as a symbol of strength and security for 156 years and online storage is a natural extension of that historic legacy,” said John Stumpf, Wells Fargo president and CEO. “More and more customers are turning to our online solutions to manage their personal and business finances, and we developed the Wells Fargo vSafe service to respond to their need for secure online storage.”

How Wells Fargo vSafe Works

Customers can access their Wells Fargo vSafe account from any Internet connection – unlike hard drives, flash drives and archiving solutions. To meet the needs of each customer, the offering includes:

• The power to store virtually any popular file format (e.g., Word documents, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, photos, audio and video files).
• An easy-to-use interface and standard folders such as “Medical,” “Legal” and “Family” to organize materials. Customers can add, modify and delete these folders.
• The ability to have Wells Fargo account statements automatically uploaded.

Wells Fargo takes a layered approach to security for all of its online products, and has done the same with the Wells Fargo vSafe service. From the moment account information leaves computers to the time it enters Wells Fargo’s system, all data is encrypted to securely transmit and store it. Optional security devices are available for customers who wish to have an additional layer of security.

Wells Fargo is supporting Wells Fargo vSafe customers with dedicated online help, and customers may call a dedicated toll-free customer service number if they prefer help from a customer service agent.

“Customers trust us to keep and manage their information,” said Jim Smith, executive vice president and head of Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group. “Compared to home filing systems, which can be difficult to maintain and organize, the Wells Fargo vSafe service gives customers peace of mind because it’s a safe place to store, organize and protect copies of private information.”

About Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $575 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through almost 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody’s Investors Service, “Aaa,” and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, “AAA.”