August 19, 2025
15 min read
Heading into your local Wells Fargo branch is still a power move
Over the next four years, every branch in the United States will be refurbished with new technology as the bank evolves its service model.
Key takeaways
- Wells Fargo is investing millions of dollars over the next four years to refurbish its entire U.S. branch network, reinforcing the physical branch as the “heart” of its retail banking business despite technological advancements.
- The evolution of these branches focuses on providing advice and guidance and fostering personal connections, with new designs creating modern, welcoming, and secure environments, incorporating digital tools for processes like account opening, and offering dedicated consult rooms.
- The initiative includes significant refurbishments in 655+ branches in six priority markets by 2025, with new branch openings in locations like New York City and Chicago emphasizing community engagement, career opportunities, and financial inclusion.
Credit: William Gallego
Technology innovations over the last few decades have dramatically changed the way we do daily tasks in nearly all facets of life. We can order groceries online, meet with doctors in our homes via telemedicine, and hold meetings not in person, but through video calls.
Banking is no different, and Wells Fargo is investing in its branches to make sure that customers have a positive and seamless experience while banking in person.
The branch system remains the “heart” of Wells Fargo’s retail banking business, according to Brad Nolan, head of branch systems and transformation. Branches aren’t going away, he said, they are just evolving.
“It’s about advice and guidance now,” he said. “Customers want to sit with a professional and listen to them directly. The other thing is, money and finances can be emotional. When a customer is having a problem, they don’t want to deal with a web page or chat bot. They want to look a person in the eyes — someone they feel they can trust — who they know has a vested interest in a successful outcome for them.”
And so that’s why, over the next four years, Wells Fargo is investing millions of dollars into refurbishing its entire branch network in the United States. Every. Single. One.
“Even in this day and age, you choose who you bank with because it’s the branch down the street or your parents took you there when you were younger,” Nolan said. “Even if you have no plans on going in, it’s about knowing it’s there when you need it.”
A 2024 study by the American Bankers Association found that more than half of U.S. consumers are conducting their banking on mobile apps more often than any other method. Wells Fargo customers have access to a variety of online services with their checking accounts, including:
- Fargo®, a virtual assistant designed to offer a simplified and enhanced mobile experience.
- A digital wallet to make quick, secure, on-the-go payments on their mobile devices.
- Check depositing from a mobile device.
- Free access to Zelle®, where they can safely and easily send and receive money with trusted friends and family who have U.S. bank accounts.
- Account syncing via Quicken®
- Bill Pay for sending payments within the U.S.
During the same decades as the technological explosion, Wells Fargo grew through a series of mergers and acquisitions, quickly expanding its footprint from the West Coast to the entire country. With these combinations, sometimes came disparate brand identity and some locations in better condition than others.
“We did some light refurbishments back in 2023, but we haven’t really invested the time, effort, or money to update everything at the same time,” Nolan said. “We want to make real substantive and structural changes to our branches to right size them for where our business exists today.”
So, heading into 2024, Nolan and his team started a yearlong process of researching, designing, testing, and getting feedback on what the Wells Fargo branch of the future will look like.
“It’s much more predicated on what you’d see in the hospitality industry,” he said. “We want our employees and customers to feel a warm, welcoming, and professional environment, while really focusing on convenience in a secure setting that allows for direct, personal communication.”
In addition to augmenting the physical environment, the bank is investing in the tools its bankers use. These include new, digitally enabled processes like opening an account.
“In the past, we would have to find a customers’ information, review disclosures, print documents, and get them signed,” Nolan said. “Now, the customer can just finish everything on their mobile device. It helps our customers feel more empowered, and that’s really the evolution of the in-branch experience.
This year, more than 655 branches will be refurbished in six priority markets — Charlotte, North Carolina, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.
“We are listening to our employees and customers,” said Nolan. “Both in what they tell us and in how they transact — that’s how we’re moving forward.”
Changes coming to your Wells Fargo branch in the next few years:
- A more modern and innovative environment in customer-facing areas
- A new digital account opening process that will be the go-to process for every banker
- New consult rooms for customers to meet with bankers
- Updated guest lounge area and employee breakrooms
- New interior digital signage
- New finishes like wall covering and paint
Branches of the future highlighted in NYC opening and Chicago groundbreaking
The Broadway & 82nd Wells Fargo branch opened in New York this spring. Over the next four years, every Wells Fargo branch in the United States will be refurbished based on feedback from customers and employees.
Wells Fargo’s Broadway & 82nd branch opened in New York this spring to much fanfare. A seminal moment for the company, its grand opening was attended by Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf and Saul Van Beurden, head of Consumer and Small Business Banking, as well as branch employees and a host of other bank executives.
During the event, the company announced a $125,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation to the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Foundation toward the Storefront Improvement program, the latest component of the Storefront Resurgence Project.
Wells Fargo has more than 4,000 retail bank branches and maintains the second largest branch network in the United States.1 A Wells Fargo branch or ATM is within two miles of more than half of United States census households.
More than the pomp and circumstance, though, the opening of the Broadway & 82nd branch was a sign of Wells Fargo’s commitment to its customers in New York. It was the fourth new branch to open in the state in 2025, with the goal of 14 more before the end of the year.
These new branches are creating more career opportunities and a more neighborhood-focused branch network. They feature a new design inspired by customer and employee feedback that includes a multi-sensory environment with informative messaging displays and a floorplan that has more space for conversation and consultation with customers.
“Wells Fargo has a history of being known as a real community bank,” Scharf said at the opening. “Community doesn’t mean big market or small market, big city, or little city. What it really means is that you are a part of the community in which you serve.
That means that we’re here to do anything we can to help folks, but also here to support the community around us.”
Slated to open in early 2026, Wells Fargo’s Bronzeville branch is a major milestone for the bank’s expansion in Chicago. A host of Wells Fargo leaders, government officials, and elected leaders attended the groundbreaking of the branch in late July.
Nolan explained Wells Fargo’s goal of creating a more neighborhood-focused branch network while modernizing its footprint for customers and employees.
“We believe that everyone deserves access to the financial tools and resources necessary to achieve their dreams,” Nolan said. “Our Bronzeville branch will provide a welcoming space for residents to bank, save, and invest in their lives. It will be a beacon of financial inclusion.”
The branch will also include a HOPE Inside center, which features Operation HOPE financial coaches who help empower community members to achieve their financial goals through free financial education workshops and coaching.
