2 min read March 2023 — Damien Haitsuka, regional bank president for Wells Fargo, spoke to Invest: about ways they are assisting businesses in underserved communities, including a $420 million commitment from the bank that saved thousands of businesses and jobs after the pandemic. Additionally, he noted the bank’s new interactive features currently available on their mobile app.
What have been the primary highlights for the bank’s Jacksonville operations over the last year?
The market that I oversee has over 800 employees in more than 90 branches across the North Florida region. We recently expanded to Nocatee, the branch opening reaffirms our long-standing commitment to meet our customers’ financial needs. In addition, we donated $300,000 to support small businesses in Northwest Jacksonville and help bring revitalization to an underserved small business area. The program will help small businesses repair their storefronts while providing technical assistance, which will help the small businesses boost their sales and attract customers. From a deposit standpoint, we have also seen some great growth numbers over the last year.
How does your team identify opportunities to help underserved business communities?
We proudly serve over 3MM small business customers enterprise wide. Our goal is to help as many small businesses as we can, with a strong emphasis on supporting the needs faced by diverse small business owners. We created a program focused on helping diverse small businesses hardest hit by COVID, called the Open for Business Fund. Through our $420 million small business recovery effort we helped businesses not only sustain but rebuild. We’ve helped 152,000 small businesses stay open and saved 255,000 jobs nationwide.
I am very proud to work for Wells Fargo. I am blown away with how seriously Wells Fargo has taken our role in the communities we serve. We have always been very intentional in our local communities. Here in the Northeast, we invested over $1 million dollars in 2021, with more than $8.6 million across the state and $615 million company-wide to support causes and programs related to small business growth among others. We are committed to being a bank of doing, not only with our pockets but also with our time. On Martin Luther King Day we had 50 local team members at a middle school doing beautification projects.
Given the current economic climate, what does brick and mortar banking look like moving forward?
Making sure the distribution network is relevant to the changing customer behavior is vital. Bank branches are still very important to our customers even though their behavior is shifting to digital – you can’t have one without the other. When a customer has a complex need or a big life decision, they need to be greeted by someone that can help them with advice and guidance. They will require someone who can assist them with financial goals or overcoming hurdles. We will continue to make investments in technology. Although we redesigned our app at the end of 2021, it never took away from the importance of what we do in our branches. We have another digital advance happening right now called FARGO, an interactive feature on our mobile app. FARGO will provide a more personalized, convenient, and simple banking experience for customers to navigate through the banking app and allow them to ask it questions.
Do you believe the Jacksonville region is more resilient than other markets in the event of an economic downturn?
We are the second fastest growing region behind Tampa Bay and have great employment opportunities here. We are home to many target industries such as finance, advanced manufacturing, aviation, life sciences, logistics, and a very healthy medical community. Jacksonville is an attractive place for people to consider when thinking about their healthcare needs because of the high doctor per capita ratio. Our unemployment rate is very low, and it’s an affordable place to live. I think that the momentum will continue, and fortunately the market has been cooperating with interest rates. People are still building and buying which is a great thing for Wells Fargo. On the other side, inflation is causing people to spend more money on everyday goods so our bankers are having more budgeting conversations to help our customers plan ahead.
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