Wells Fargo Extends Commercial Cards to Europe

Wells Fargo is expanding its commercial card portfolio to Europe with the launch of a European Commercial Card.

By offering a European card, commercial card payments in pounds sterling or euros will be easier to process, track and report, the bank says in a May 1 press release. The card will be supported by MasterCard—Wells is a long-time MasterCard issuer in the U.S.—and will be available for use at more than 37 million merchants globally.

Wells' European card will also leverage travel tools such as the bank's Commercial Electronic Office portal, which enables corporate financial officers and employees to monitor commercial card payments such as airfare and hotel stays for oversight into expenses.

"Our middle market and large corporate customers are increasingly conducting business globally. The European Card solution is designed to streamline our customers' purchasing process in pound sterling or euro, whether it's for small business purchase, travel and entertainment, or large expenditures," says Mary Mazzochi, senior vice president and manager of the commerce card product suite at Wells Fargo, in a press release.

In another move, Wells Fargo is also embedding all new USD WellsOne commercial cards with EMV chips. While Wells Fargo is migrating its cardholders to EMV ahead of the card network-imposed fraud liability shift in 2015, it will enable its WellsOne cards to make both EMV and magnetic stripe transactions for U.S.-based users who frequently travel to EMV friendly markets.

Wells Fargo is also in the midst of an initiative to release new credit cards in partnership with American Express, as well as revamp its existing cards. The bank lags other large bank issuers in the credit card market, and has made expanding its share of the credit card market a top priority.