New Jersey and Delaware Wachovia branches will convert to Wells Fargo

More than two years after Wells Fargo & Co. bought Wachovia Bank Corp., signs on Philadelphia-area branches are about to start changing.

Overnight from Friday to Saturday, 333 Wachovia branches in New Jersey and Delaware will be transformed into Wells Fargo branches, the final step in a transition that began in 2008, during the heat of the nation's financial crisis.

The conversion of 290 Pennsylvania branches is scheduled for April.

Hugh Long, Wells Fargo regional president for Pennsylvania and Delaware, said he was confident there would be no glitches as the bank with the most branches in the region changed colors from Wachovia's blue and green to Wells Fargo's red and gold.

"I already know everything is going to work. The standard is much higher" than merely ensuring that there are no problems with deposits being properly credited, for example, Long said. The bigger issue is: "How does the customer feel about the conversion?"

In an effort to connect with its new communities, Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, worked with local historical societies and universities to create murals that will be displayed in about a fifth of the branches, with more planned.

For example, the mural for a branch in Glassboro includes an illustration of the former Whitney Glass Works, a 1918 photo of a local fire company, and a picture of the Hollybush Mansion on what is now the campus of Rowan University. Interspersed are images showing Wells Fargo's historical connection to Glassboro through money orders and express deliveries by horse and wagon.

Winnowing down items for the murals was a challenge, said Beth Currie, who as manager of Eastern store strategic initiatives for Wells Fargo is overseeing the murals here.

"We always get a lot more images than we can actually use in the mural," she said.

Wells Fargo started including historical murals in its new branches in 2002, completing 1,200 through 2009. Last year, 500 more were done, mostly in former Wachovia branches.

The first Wachovia branches that Wells Fargo converted were in markets where both companies had branches, such as Colorado and California. Those were followed by markets in the South, where only Wachovia had branches. The New Jersey-Delaware area will be the third Wachovia-only market to be converted.

Last year's fourth quarter, when Wells Fargo spent $534 million on the integration, and the current quarter are expected to be the costliest of the conversion, Wells Fargo said.

Long said management had changed its conversion procedure based on what happened in Georgia, Alabama, and elsewhere.

For example, in those markets, Wells Fargo issued new debit cards to all customers and canceled Wachovia debit cards. The result was that two-thirds of customer visits to branches on the Saturday of the conversion and the next week were related to debit-card problems.

This time, Wachovia debit cards will be replaced as they expire. However, "if they want a Wells Fargo card, we'll give them one," Long said.

As usual, extra technicians will be on hand to deal with normal problems, such as ATMs that do not work properly, Long said. "We want to make sure a malfunctioning ATM is not seen as a conversion issue," he said.

Local Wachovia Bank branches are being renamed Wells Fargo.

February conversions

New Jersey

 Branches/ATMs: 314/466

Customer households:

1.47 million

Signs being changed: 2,400

Delaware

 Branches/ATMs: 19/35

Customer households: 142,000

Signs being changed: 143

April conversion

Pennsylvania

Branches/ATMs: 290/459

Customer households:

1.7 million

Signs being changed: 2,030

SOURCE: Wells Fargo & Co.EndText