Wells Fargo just gave notice to some 638-mortgage employees around the country. Orlando FL, Rancho Cordova, CA, Colorado Springs, CO and Charlotte NC took the brunt of the layoff hits.
As reported in the Orlando Sentinel, “After carefully evaluating market conditions and consumer needs we are reducing (our workforce) to better align with current volumes,” said Tom Goyda, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo has been sporadically cutting its numbers of mortgage employees. This immediate cut is the largest layoff amount yet.
Q2 2018 saw Wells Fargo’s mortgage banking income fall -33% compared with Q2 2017. The bank indicated that its costs were largely related to retail fulfillment and servicing jobs.
Market analysts believe Wells’ layoff moves address overcapacity within its mortgage-banking sector. The layoffs also reflect the continued slowing in purchase mortgage application volumes. Struggles with rising mortgage interest rates also have hurt demand for refinancing applications.
Wells Fargo also indicated that it intends to cut $4B in costs by 2020 in order to “…grow profits as it operates under punitive asset caps levied by the Federal Reserve Board.”
