Why the global payments well is full for Wells Fargo
The executive in charge of Wells Fargo & Co.’s Business Internet Services unit sees a bright future for its web retailing payments processing base, particularly as Internet retailing becomes even more global and merchants expand their payments options for consumers.
In the first quarter of 2004, Wells Fargo processed nearly $4 billion worth of Internet merchant payments, more than double the amount for the same time period in 2003.
"We saw 100% growth in online merchant payments, and we expect this tremendous growth trend to continue," says Debra Rossi, executive vice president of Business Internet Services at Wells Fargo.
The growth, Rossi says, is coming from new online retailing segments such as companies selling downloadable music and from merchants expanding their overseas business options and offering customers new ways to pay for merchandise in multiple international currencies.
For instance, Wells Fargo recently helped PayPal, the payments arm of eBay Inc., set up online gateways that help PayPal merchants accept five kinds of international currency, including the euro, pounds sterling, Japanese yen, and the U.S. and Canadian dollar.
"We simplify the process for offering multi-currency transactions,” Rossi says. "Wells Fargo`s many relationships with global sponsoring bank affiliates and our international payments gateway streamlines payment processing with a single connection. This helps companies avoid the time and expense of engaging multiple vendors and banks to separately handle local currency settlement,” she says.
In 2003, Wells Fargo processed nearly $12 billion in Internet-based payments for more than 61,000 online merchants.
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