Wells Fargo hires Michelle Moore, the former Bank of America digital executive

Wells Fargo announced Friday that it hired Michelle Moore to lead its digital platform, two years after she left Bank of America where she was head of digital banking.

The hire is the latest that San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has made to beef up its operations and digital work, two areas that CEO Charlie Scharf has made a priority of attempting to modernize. Moore will start Dec. 31 and is based in Charlotte.

Moore was the Bank of America executive who led the introduction of “Erica”, the award-winning artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant that now has 16 million users. For her work at BofA, she was American Banker’s 2017 Digital Banker of the Year. Since she left in 2018, Moore worked at Boston Consulting Group.

At Wells Fargo, Moore will have a similar mandate to the one she had on the other side of uptown: She’ll be tasked with overseeing the development of digital tools for consumer customers, according to company spokesman Josh Dunn. She will also support and manage the bank’s digital work, according to a bank press release.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Wells Fargo at such a pivotal time for the company and the world – when more than ever, customers are turning to digital to manage their financial lives,” Moore said in a statement. “I look forward to joining this best-in-class team and helping to move the needle on our digital strategy.”

She will report to Ather Williams, the bank’s head of strategy, digital and innovation. The New York-based Williams was Bank of America’s head of business banking until he moved to Wells in October. Wells Fargo employs 27,000 in the Charlotte area, a legacy of the bank’s 2008 purchase of Wachovia.