Wells Fargo’s cost-cutting efforts will include layoffs, most likely by the end of the year, Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry told investors at a Morgan Stanley conference this week.
“We now have the fact that we're in a public health crisis, and we've committed to keep people on while that is true. But there will come a time, I assume at some point this year, when we get back to executing on programs that are in place, and some that are still under development, that are designed to get our total expense base, which for us means our total headcount, to as lean a state as we can responsibly operate,” Shrewsberry said, adding that automation and other changes can also contribute to expense cuts.
“We’ve got the same scale as the most efficient players do,” Shrewsberry said at the June 10 conference. “There’s no reason that we should operate in a less efficient way.”
Arizona is one of Wells Fargo's largest operations. The bank is the second-largest in the state by amount of deposits, has more than 10,000 employees and 136 branches.
The company declined further comment when asked what areas of the bank will be hit and in what cities the job cuts will occur. Wells Fargo employs 263,000 globally.
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