Wells Fargo cuts more jobs in Charlotte

Wells Fargo is laying off more employees in Charlotte, announcing cuts this week that affect human resources staff.

Spokesman Josh Dunn confirmed the cuts but declined to provide a figure. It comes after Wells Fargo earlier this month announced about 120 layoffs from the closure of a reverse-mortgage operation in Fort Mill, S.C.

Wells Fargo continues to shed jobs at a time when it’s pushing to shave billions of dollars in costs and recover from a massive scandal over fake accounts that erupted last September. This week, the Senate Banking Committee said CEO Tim Sloan will testify next month, as Wells continues to face questions about the accounts scandal and newer revelations about practices in other divisions.

Dunn, in explaining the layoffs, said some Wells teams are reorganizing, which has resulted in “course-of-business displacements.” As the company continuously seeks to become more efficient, “we’ve looked for new ways to innovate our business models, reduce expenses and operate more efficiently in order to remain competitive,” he said.

In 2015, Wells Fargo announced internally an initiative to find ways for streamlining five major departments: human resources, technology support, finance, communications and marketing.

That project was expected to last five years, a person familiar with the situation said at the time.

Since the scandal, Wells Fargo has also disclosed plans to centralize functions.

The bank’s board, in a report released in April, identified a decentralized corporate structure as a principal reason executives did not respond to bad sales practices quickly enough.

Wells has cited human resources as a focus of centralization efforts, as well as finance, risk and marketing.

Dunn said Wells is committed to retaining as many of the human resources employees as it can. Where possible, the bank will work to identify other internal opportunities or support displaced employees as they transition outside the company, he said.

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Wells Fargo cuts more jobs in Charlotte."