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February 5, 2001

Wells Fargo Moves Into B-To-B Online Services

Marketplace buyers and sellers will be able to complete financial transactions online

By Cheryl Rosen (crosen@cmp.com)

More on payment systems:

TechWeb Finance: E-Currencies Are Going Offline (12/13/00)

Reuters: VeriSign, VerticalNet Team On Transactions (12/11/00)

ells Fargo & Co. last week rolled out WellsXchange, a suite of online services designed to help E-marketplace buyers and sellers complete their financial transactions online. It also inked a deal with Oracle that will bring Wells Fargo's financial services, which eventually will include electronic payment and settlement, credit, and digital certificates, to users of Oracle's B2B Exchange software.

For now, WellsXchange offers four services: an unsecured revolving credit line, letters of credit that can be used to pay foreign sellers, escrow services, and documentary collection, whereby Wells Fargo transfers shipping documents to overseas suppliers and collects payment.

WellsXchange will focus on providing services to smaller, more local, or industry-specific exchanges, more akin to Wells' customer base of small and midsize business customers. It's been talking to them for a year about their need for integrated payment services through a single gateway.

Keeping financial services "simple, easy, and integrated is the way to go," says Jupiter analyst James Van Dyke. WellsXchange has signed three exchange customers: AgEx (agricultural); GemConnect (gemstone and jewelry); and MeetChina (Chinese goods).

Wells Fargo also plans to use the exchange as a gateway to the FinancialSettlement Matrix, a multibank settlement network that it's launching with Citigroup, i2 Technologies, and S1.