Saul Van Beurden, Head of Technology at Wells Fargo, sat down with American Banker to talk about the bank’s response to the coronavirus; with his European background Van Beurden was receiving information from family and friends that the virus was worse than was being reported in the U.S. in late February; this allowed the bank to set up communication teams to discuss the viability of working from home; almost all jobs were able to be done from home with the exception of a handful of field support people who needed to go to data centers; ensuring leaders are calm and positive while precisely going through processes sets up the right environment for all staff to follow; digital banking enrollment has spiked with more than 350,000 new digital banking users and growth is still in the double digit range; the interview also discussed their tech stack overhaul, if the pandemic will change behavior in the long term and how the bank is still working on cutting edge projects like quantum computing. American Banker
