SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), said today that the number of deposits its business customers have made via the internet -- eliminating the need for physical deposit of paper checks at the bank -- nearly doubled in the past three months. This paper-less process was made legal by the "Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act" signed into law two years ago.

The growth includes:

-- An 87 percent increase in the number of checks deposited via the internet -- from 11 million to 21 million

-- A 50 percent increase in the amount of money deposited -- from $66 billion to more than $100 billion

-- A 36 percent increase in the number of electronic deposit business customers -- from 1,468 to 2,000

"Check 21 has allowed us to deliver new products to our customers that make it even easier for them to deposit and track their checks," said Stephanie Sturgis-Griffin, senior vice president of Wholesale Internet Solutions for Wells Fargo. "Our customers -- from companies in rural areas far from our banking stores to global operations running thousands of outlets -- are embracing this new service because it saves them significant amounts of time and money."

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $483 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance to more than 23 million customers from more than 6,100 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and elsewhere internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has the highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service and the highest credit rating given to a U.S. bank, "AA+," from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

Source: Wells Fargo & Company