Wells Fargo plans Las Vegas expansion

Friday, Jan. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Wells Fargo Bank, under heavy criticism for its service since moving into Nevada, is planning to expand in Las Vegas and Reno but pull back in rural Nevada.

And the bank is working 24 hours a day to correct the myriad consumer complaints registered since it took over First Interstate Bank, said Kathleen Lucier, regional manager for Wells Fargo.

Lucier said Thursday that Wells Fargo has signed an agreement with Lucky's to place branches in 24 of the chain's supermarkets in Las Vegas and also with Scolari's for 12-14 locations in the Reno area.

At the same time, Lucier said, the bank wants to sell off its branches in Lovelock, Eureka, Tonopah, Wells and Fernley.

"We don't have buyers at this point," Lucier said, adding Wells Fargo will not leave until a new owner takes over.

"We cannot offer them the expanded Wells Fargo network," Lucier said. "We feel they (the five rural banks ) could be better served by having a local community bank service them."

She said the rural branches are so far away from the metropolitan areas that the services are not available to them.

Lucier said Wells Fargo completed the large merger in nine months rather than the traditional 18-24 months time frame.

"We are painfully aware of the service issues," Lucier said. "We owe quality of service and we will deliver that."

Nevada state Treasurer Bob Seale joined the chorus of consumer complaints after the merger, saying the bank's service was not up to anticipated standards.

Douglas Dirks, general manager of the State Industrial Insurance System, also weighed in with a complaint. He said Wells Fargo could not produce daily bank statements on its account for two months after it took over. The bank reconciliations, he said, were needed because the state invests its money on a daily basis and it must know how much it has on hand.

Internal records of SIIS were used to compute the money available for investment, he said. But there was no way to verify it with the bank. Because the bank could not fulfil its contract, it waived its fee during this period, Dirks said.

SIIS does an estimated $6 billion a year in business with Wells Fargo, in addition to the $1 billion in securities of which the bank is custodian.

George Pyne, executive officer of the state Public Employees Retirement System, which has its $8 billion portfolio under the wing of Wells Fargo, said there were difficulties during the transition from First Interstate.

"But there is nothing so significant that we would terminate our relationship," Pyne said. "We're taking a wait and see approach. I'm hopeful they will come around.

"Any time you have a transition, it's a rocky road," Pyne said, adding that in a few cases, pensioners had trouble cashing checks and there have been check reconciliation problems. "If these are ongoing and become chronic, we will have to deal with that."

The retirement system has 3 1/2 years left on its contract with Wells Fargo to handle its commercial and trust accounts.

Seale earlier had complained the bank had pulled back on its services in dealing with the state accounts, and he questioned whether Wells Fargo would be interested in the future in doing business with state agencies or local governments.

The state's banking services contract goes out to bid this summer along with SIIS. Lucier could not whether the bank would seek government accounts.

She conceded Wells Fargo has lost customers but "not in big numbers."

"We are aware of the need to rebuild and establish services," Lucier said. "We have not got our heads in the sand."

She also said an announcement would be forthcoming naming Bryan Waters as division manager for Nevada with offices in Las Vegas and Reno. Waters is a longtime employee with Wells Fargo in the Sacramento, Calif., area.

After the takeover of FIB, there were long lines at the branches, computer glitches in accounts, long waits for answering the 800 telephone number and layoffs of veteran employees.

Wells Fargo discontinued the check guarantee card, angering some customers and merchants. Some railroad employees didn't get their pension deposits for up to two months, resulting in inquiries from Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev.