Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) has finally decided to go ahead with its layoff process and intends to shrink its workforce, due to the mounting pressure for cost reduction. Like several US banks, the multinational financial services company had put job cuts on hold amidst the pandemic.
The private lender has now decided to resume layoffs as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative, as it is struggling with huge losses.
The Company’s cost-cutting exercise will also include branch closures and consolidation, along with slashing of of tens of thousands of jobs.
However, the affected employees will be provided severance packages and career assistance.
The Bank had begun cutting jobs in early August, and is expected to reduce the size of the workforce through a combination of attrition, elimination of open roles and job displacements.
As of June 2020, Wells Fargo had approximately 266,300 in its workforce.
Earlier this year, in May, Charlie Scharf, CEO, Wells Fargo, had expressed concern over the finance company’s inflating costs, and stated that the expenses were rather high.
Yet another bank that resorted to layoffs was HSBC. In June, the international bank had announced a massive slashing of about 35,000 jobs. Although the layoffs were originally to start in February, HSBC had temporarily put the exercise on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, given the challenging business climate, coupled with falling profits, HSBC had also decided to revive its plan to downsize
