BLOGS

When big bank honchos come to town, we like to start the interview at Shakti’s with a snifter of scotch, then zip over to The Windmill for juicy steaks and then hit Wally’s House of Booze for an hour of flirting with the cuties. Isn’t that what bank honchos do?

Sigh. Too bad none of that’s true.

Still, Patrick Yalung, Wells Fargo Bank’s regional president, seems like the kind of down-to-earth guy who’d be fun to grab a beer with. On a visit here last week, he chatted about the state of the local economy (it’s better than most), how business lending has grown at Wells Fargo (quite a bit) and how cool it is to use the bank’s new envelope-free ATMs (“You gotta try these things,” he said).

Joining Patrick for the half-hour chat were Don Collins, Wells Fargo’s business banking manager for central Washington, and Agustin Reyes, North Central Washington’s district manager. They provided local background while Patrick covered the bigger picture.

Just to refresh your memory, Wells Fargo is the San Francisco-based mega-bank, fourth largest in the U.S., with $1.3 trillion in assets, 270,000 employees and 9,000 branches. Statewide, the bank has 152 branches and $10.2 billion in assets. It’s been in business in the state since 1857.

And, yep, we’ve got nine Wells Fargo branches across Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties.

Everyday Business: So what brings you to the Apple Capital of the World?

Patrick Yalung: Central Washington is an important part of our overall business. Its agriculture is one of two economic sectors in the state that have shown nice, solid growth right through the recession — the other one is the tech industry — so it makes sense to visit here with our customers.

On our last visit, we also heard from customers and Wells Fargo employees that its good for us (Wells Fargo execs) to be out in the field — to see and hear first-hand what’s really going on with people’s finances. So here I am.

EB: Does that mean you’re ready to lend us some money?

Yalung (laughing): Y’know, Wells Fargo is the nation’s No. 1 ag lender, and we see opportunities for that to grow. Our bank has a solid local portfolio in the Wenatchee area — our ag lending here has grown 5 to 10 percent over last year — and we continue to be optimistic when we compare North Central Washington to other regions.

And the lending isn’t just to growers, but also to peripheral ag suppliers — machinery, pesticides, packing supplies, trucking.

EB: What if you don’t grow fruit? Is there any hope of getting a loan?

Yalung: Our lending has grown considerably, even if you don’t count the growth in agriculture loans. In central Washington — that includes Yakima — lending to (non-farm) businesses is up 16 percent over last year. We think that’s pretty good.

EB: What other trends are you seeing?

Yalung: The size of individual loans is dropping while the total number of loans is rising. But that’s no real surprise. It’s a reflection of weaker consumer confidence and a growing caution when it comes to taking risks.

In agriculture, we see that lending helps both farmers and orchardists, along with big agri-business customers, expand their operations. We’re talking acreage, planting, irrigation and lots of other stuff.

In other sectors, we’re seeing business people investing in the buildings where they’re located. They’re replacing their rent payment with a loan payment, and helping grow equity and the balance sheets.

EB: So, recession-wise, things are looking up?

Yalung: Look, we’re going to continue to see a very slow recovery. We see growth in agriculture and technology, but — let’s face it — not every sector is so lucky. We’re trying to do our part to help out, but for some sectors that’s tough.

EB: Like homeowners, for instance?

Yalung: Yeah, that’s a tough one. But we’re trying hard to help people stay in their homes. We’re holding workshops that address this very thing — asking people with delinquencies and foreclosures to come talk to us. We can’t help everyone, but we figure we can help about 66 percent of the people who come see us. Maybe we can only help lower their monthly payment. Maybe we can help them entirely modify their home loan.

EB: Hey, wasn’t Wells Fargo one of those giant banks that wanted to impose a monthly fee for using a debit card?

Yalung: Uhh … yes. We had considered a pilot program to charge $3 a month for debit card users. This was happening about the same time a competitor we won’t name (Bank of America) met with huge opposition (customers leaving by the thousands) when they tried to impose a similar fee. Customers sent us a strong message, and we listened. We stopped the pilot program before it even got started.

EB: You like those new fancy-schmancy ATMs, don’t you?

Yalung (laughing): Can’t help it. I think they’re cool. No envelopes needed. You make a deposit — feed in $1 bills, $5 bills, $100 bills, checks, you name it — and the machine recognizes what you put in and credits your account. It’ll take a picture of each check and print it for you on a receipt, if you want it to.

We have all this high-powered technology, but it’s everyday stuff like these ATMs that really matter. I think they’re darned slick.

Comments

Want to comment on this story? All Wenatchee World members are invited to comment on stories, by using the form below. Please know that we at wenatcheeworld.com hope our site is useful, entertaining and civil. So we'll delete comments that are obscene, abusive or way off topic. We appreciate it when readers use the "suggest removal" button to flag inappropriate comments. For more about interacting with the site, see our Use Policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.

Sign in to comment