The sentiment “getting to the money” has different meanings depending on your circumstances. For those with financial privileges, it could mean doubling down on investments and capitalizing on stock options. But for those who’ve had to work to break down systemic barriers, it could be tapping into the hustle and paying life’s proverbial tax to find a way to make everything make sense.
The latter group is where Wells Fargo is focused, dispatching an array of resources through corporate commitments to local and national partnerships to make it happen. All of this is nicely wrapped up in what the bank is calling its Banking Inclusion Initiative – a 10-year commitment to help more unbanked people gain access to affordable, mainstream, digitally-enabled transactional accounts and easier access to low-cost banking products.
At the center of this initiative is the intentional work to help Wells Fargo’s customers have better access and better relationships with money. Here are five ways Wells Fargo is here to help communities of color get on the path to financial wellness.
Our Money Matters
In partnership with the HBCU Community Development Action Coalition, Wells Fargo launched the Our Money Matters program across 14 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions. The program supports financial wellness for students of color that experience more significant challenges with college debt and seeks to equip students at each school to build skills and access resources that will help them advance financially.
Operation HOPE and Community Connections Branches
If you look within select Wells Fargo locations established in diverse and low-to-moderate income (LMI) neighborhoods, you may find HOPE Inside. Now in the greater Atlanta, Houston, Oakland, and Los Angeles markets, the in-bank resource is a collaborative effort between the financial institution and national financial empowerment nonprofit, Operation HOPE. Expanding to 20 markets that will serve as many as 150 Wells Fargo branches in the surrounding communities by the end of 2023, the partnership offers financial education workshops and free one-on-one coaching to its customers and community members.
In addition to HOPE Inside, Wells Fargo is looking to have 100 LMI neighborhood branches redesigned over the next 18 months to better meet the needs of the community, provide financial resources, and assist unbanked and underbanked individuals.
Fintech
In collaboration with Black-owned fintech, MoCaFi, Wells Fargo focuses on assisting the unbanked with banking solutions that meet people at the point of their needs. For example, enabling MoCaFi card holders access to withdraw funds from Wells Fargo ATMs with no fees from Wells Fargo. The goal is to use government-to-people payments as an onramp to access other resources, build toward achieving larger financial goals like homeownership and alleviate financial barriers for communities of color.
MDIs and CFE
Wells Fargo is putting its money where its mouth is (see what we did there) to strengthen its relations with Black-owned minority depository institutions (MDIs). In 2020, Wells Fargo made a pledge to commit $50 million in equity investments to Black-owned banks in communities across the country – the bank fulfilled that pledge in 2021. In addition to also allowing MDI customers the chance to use Wells Fargo ATMs with no fee accrual from Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo is providing technological and operational support to the MDIs as they pursue strategic priorities like entering new markets, expanding locations, designing new products, and hiring staff to support loan growth.
Cities for Financial Empowerment (CFE) Fund is working with Wells Fargo to advise the bank in creating new strategies and approaches to help break down barriers and alleviate accessibility issues for those living in highly concentrated areas for unbanked households.
National Unbanked Task Force
What is an initiative without a task force? Wells Fargo launched a task force to bring the community’s voice to the table, offer honest feedback on the bank’s initiatives and provide advice and counsel that best serve the constituents they serve. The task force includes the leaders of the following national organizations:
- LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens)
- NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
- National Bankers Association
- NCAI (National Congress of American Indians)
- NCRC (National Community Reinvestment Coalition)
- UnidosUS
- National Urban League
- NAFOA (Native American Finance Officers Association)
- Mississippi-based Hope Enterprise Corporation
If the intended community does not find value, then the initiatives’ work is for naught. Wells Fargo is committed to ensuring that the people who need it most have access to all the tools necessary to get their money right.
Click here to learn more about the work Wells Fargo is doing to empower people and build healthy financial habits.
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
