A Sweeping Change -- Wells Fargo offers small businesses the chance to earn interest on their checking accounts.

In a sign of the growing importance of the small-business segment, Wells Fargo ($549 billion in assets) has expanded the rollout of its weekend sweep account service for small business customers in certain Western U.S. markets. The Wells Fargo Business Weekend Sweep service is an FDIC-insured service for small business owners that automatically sweeps a portion of their checking account balances into an interest-bearing savings account over weekends.

According to Sherry DiTirro, head of Wells Fargo's small business cash management group, the San Francisco-based financial institution launched the service in response to a perceived need to satisfy its customers. "This is a group of customers that can't earn interest while larger corporations can use sweep accounts [for this purpose]," she explains. "We want to give small businesses the same opportunities to earn interest on their money."

The Weekend Sweep service transfers money from clients' checking accounts to interest-bearing accounts as of the last transaction recorded on Friday night and sweeps it back into the checking accounts as...