By Chad Morris

2017-08-01

5 Min. To Read

* Editorial Disclaimer

This post may contain references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. The content or opinions contained within this post come from third party journalists or members of the CreditCardReviews.com Editorial Team and are not supplied by any of our partners.

Wells Fargo & Company is hard at work creating new technological features that will improve its customers’ banking experiences with the company. It recently announced the development of Control Tower, an innovative tool that will display a “digital financial footprint” of how a Wells Fargo account is connected to other places in cyberspace. The device will show how a credit or debit card with the bank is connected to various services, such as a mobile wallet, online retailer, subscription, a third party, or a recurring payment. Such an ability will help the bank’s customers more easily discover an unknown charge or unwanted subscription.

Control Tower will also be able to show how account information is used by financial tools and retailers. The bank plans to enable Control Tower to turn a Wells Fargo account on or off. Users of the software will be able to stop the sharing of a credit card with a website or device. All of this will be quick and easy on the Wells Fargo mobile app, which will incorporate Control Tower.

The bank’s CEO Tim Sloan said Control Tower will be “the first of its kind.” Some of the available features are certainly exciting. For instance, if a credit or debit card expires, Control Tower will have a feature that will send updated information out to retailers and apps that use the data. In theory, if your Wells Fargo card is being used by twenty different on-line retailers, you should be able to manage all of those relationships from a single app.

Control Tower would be especially helpful if a Wells Fargo card is lost or stolen. Instead of contacting each place that uses the card number, you could just turn it off or update the data with a new card number using the Wells Fargo mobile app.

Another unique technology Wells Fargo has recently been involved with is Zelle. Developed with thirty other financial companies, Zelle is a peer-to-peer payment network that allows users to send money to U.S. credit card users or financial institutions. It takes only minutes for funds to be available. In addition to sending money, Zelle can also be used to request funds. It runs on both the Wells Fargo website and mobile app.

The financial giant also recently revamped its website. There is an improved interface that creates a more customized experience for each customer. Navigation is easier, and less time is required to locate important information.

The bank has released a new version of Security Center, a service on its website and mobile app where customers can perform a variety of functions to better protect their deposit accounts. A fingerprint can now be activated for Apple and Android devices. Security alerts can be set up for a variety of activities, including when a password is changed or when account access is suspended. Users can also report fraud, a lost or stolen card, and register a voice to be used as a password over the phone.

A chat bot based on artificial intelligence is currently being tested by Wells Fargo for its functionality within Facebook Messenger. The goal is to allow customers to find information quickly using the automated chat service, instead of having to search for information through multiple web pages. Although the company has had a Facebook page for several years now, millions of its customers use Messenger as well; so the bot will be another avenue for customer support.

While Wells Fargo has had a difficult year recovering from a recent account opening scandal, the bank’s CEO expressed optimism that the technological advancements were a path in the right direction: “Innovation is at the core of what we do....We’re allowing our customers to take control of their financial picture. This is a new Wells Fargo. We’re changing the company in so many ways.”

Table of Contents