44 Montgomery Street, San Francisco

It’s kind of odd that in these days of electronic transactions physical addresses are still needed in bank wire transfers. Thus it was really annoying that many, if not most, bank websites do not have their physical address information readily available; one has to click, click, click, and if one is lucky one might find it.

So it came to pass, on Tuesday when I sent in a request to wire some money to Wells Fargo Bank, I got a call from the originating bank that it needed the physical address of WFB. Well, first, do not banks know each other? Especially with a big bank like WFB? Anyway, I tried a google search and came up with “44 Montgomery St.” and I gave that to the representative of the originating bank. It turned out, however, that was an old, old address. In fact, it appears that “44 Montgomery St.” has become a symbol, the “Old Wells Fargo Building”. Only later did I realize the correct address is 420, not 44. Adding to the confusion was the fact the the WFB webpages that I searched indicated that that was the address of its museum.

At any rate, I am glad the wire went through. Perhaps the receiving clerk would appreciate the fond memories of 44 Montgomery that this wire brought him. But then, it’s most likely a soulless computer that got the wire.