Smartphones were just taking off when Wells Fargo launched its mobile banking platform five years ago. Then, adventurous tech users were able to check their balances and account activities using the most basic mobile web browsing applications.

Now, roughly 8.5 million users later, expectations for mobile banking capabilities are extremely high, says Wells Fargo Senior Vice President Brian Pearce. Beyond balance checking, peer-to-peer money transferring and activity tracking, today’s mobile banking users want features that are unique to the smartphone, like remote deposit capabilities and GPS-powered location features.

In a conversation with PYMNTS.com, Pearce talks about how mobile banking has changed over five years, how the platform has impacted Wells Fargo’s larger business, and what to expect from mobile banking in the near future.

Smartphones were just taking off when Wells Fargo launched its mobile banking platform five years ago. Then, adventurous tech users were able to check their balances and account activities using the most basic mobile web browsing applications.

Now, roughly 8.5 million users later, expectations for mobile banking capabilities are extremely high, says Wells Fargo Senior Vice President Brian Pearce. Beyond balance checking, peer-to-peer money transferring and activity tracking, today’s mobile banking users want features that are unique to the smartphone, like remote deposit capabilities and GPS-powered location features.

In a conversation with PYMNTS.com, Pearce talks about how mobile banking has changed over five years, how the platform has impacted Wells Fargo’s larger business, and what to expect from mobile banking in the near future.

Listen to the audio below.

Brian Pearce
Senior Vice President, Head of Retail Mobile Channel
Digital Channels Group
Wells Fargo & Company

Brian M. Pearce is Senior Vice President, Head of Retail Mobile Channel for Wells Fargo’s Digital Channels Group. His team is responsible for the Wells Fargo retail mobile strategy and managing Wells Fargo’s retail mobile presence, including wf.com, downloadable apps (iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm) and the Text Banking service (short code 93557 – WELLS).

Through its mobile channel and initiatives, Wells Fargo delivers on the customer promise of anytime, anywhere, convenient and secure access to financial information and services. As of July 2012, Wells Fargo has 8.5 million active customers using mobile devices to access their accounts.

In 2012, Keynote, a measurement company for online and mobile performance, ranked Wells Fargo winner in two categories: Privacy & Security and Quality & Availability.

Over his nearly 20-year career in financial services, Brian has garnered much success by leading a variety of business development, product and project management, business analysis and product operations functions. Brian’s career with Wells Fargo began in 2001 in the Investment Internet Services group and continued in Online Payments in 2005. Throughout his tenure, Brian and his teams have led large, multi-channel efforts including P2P payments, InterFI Transfers, Transfer Scheduling, Bill Pay scalability, and the launch of the online brokerage platform. Prior to Wells Fargo, he worked for both industry leaders such as First Data Corporation and Andersen Consulting as well as Internet startups.