Dallas, Texas 03/06/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) announced in the last week of February that it has made plans to reduce close to 700 jobs in its home and mortgage finance division in the next few weeks, as it anticipates demand for new housing slowing down further. The country’s biggest lender for housing projects has indicated that it does not see the demand for refinancing of houses picking up either in the near term.
The latest workforce right sizing announcement comes on the back of axing of close to 250 jobs in the beginning of this year. The firm has also not ruled out the possibility of the work force reduction assuming larger proportions in the coming months, in the event of the market dynamics worsening further. The financial institution had sent out email notices to the impacted work force late on 28th February. The job rolls being cut include the “mortgage origination, processing and fulfillment” disciplines.
Tom Goyda, the official spokesman for Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) in response to follow up questions and request for additional information from the media had indicated that, “We’ll continue to monitor the market and make adjustments to our capacity as is appropriate. We saw some significant declines in mortgage originations in the last half of 2013 and we expect to see a continued decline at this point in the first quarter.”
The move by Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is not to be seen in isolation. In fact just a few days back, JPMorgan Chase & Co., which is considered a close competitor to the San Francisco, based Wells had indicated pretty much the same reading of the gloomy market scenario. No less a person than the company CEO Jamie Dimon had come on record to state that he foresees job cuts and pre tax losses when the firm reports results for the first quarter.
