Financial stores get shuttered
Wells Fargo cuts 2,800 jobs; its bank branches unaffected
Three Wells Fargo Financial stores in Spokane and one in Coeur d’Alene will close in September as part of a Wells Fargo & Co. restructuring. Wells Fargo bank branches and mortgage offices will remain open.
The company is closing all 638 of its financial stores and ending the origination of non-prime mortgage loans that it keeps in its portfolio.
Wells Fargo said it will eliminate 2,800 of 14,000 Wells Fargo Financial jobs in the next 60 days. Another 1,000 likely will be lost in the next 12 months. Remaining employees will be reassigned to other Wells businesses.
The San Francisco-based bank said it no longer needed the locations because it now has 6,600 bank branches and 2,200 mortgage offices nationwide after buying Charlotte’s Wachovia Corp. in 2008. It said less than 2 percent of its real estate loans were originated through Wells Fargo Financial stores in the first quarter of 2010.
The job cuts equate to 1.4 percent of Wells Fargo’s 267,400 employees at the end of March. It isn’t clear yet how many workers in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene will lose their jobs.
Local Wells Fargo Financial offices are located at 1419 N. Argonne Road in Spokane Valley, 7450 N. Division St. in north Spokane, 3209 E. 57th Ave. in south Spokane, and 411 W. Haycraft Ave. in Coeur d’Alene.
Customers with current Wells Fargo Financial loans will continue to be served without disruption, the bank said. Federal Housing Administration loans, auto loans and credit cards previously offered by Wells Fargo Financial will be combined with similar products offered elsewhere in the company.