Wells Fargo to lay off more workers from its West Des Moines campus as CEO comp rises

On the same day that Wells Fargo shareholders voted to increase CEO Charlie Scharf’s 2023 compensation package by $4.5 million, the company announced another round of layoffs at its Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines.

Wells Fargo is laying off 40 employees from its West Des Moines campus, according to the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) released Tuesday.

It comes at the same time that Scharf’s 2023 package of $29 million was approved by shareholders, up from the $24.5 million in compensation he received in 2022.

"We regularly review and adjust staffing levels to align with market conditions and the needs of our businesses. We work very hard to identify opportunities for employees in other parts of the company so we can retain as many employees as possible. Where it’s not possible, we provide assistance, such as severance and career counseling," said Wells Fargo Spokesman Mike Slusark in a prepared statement.

The most recent round of cuts brings to 302 the publicly announced number of workers cut since April 2023 from Wells Fargo’s Des Moines metro employment rolls — and 1,418 workers cut since 2018, according to WARN records. The financial institution also previously announced layoffs from its Jordan Creek campus in February and March.

The most recent round of layoffs will take effect June 30.

Wells Fargo’s continued layoffs were expected. Scharf announced in late 2023 he was anticipating severance costs of $750 million to $1 billion in the upcoming year.

Overall, the bank ― until recently, Des Moines metro's largest employer ― shed 11,300 jobs in 2023, or 4.7% of its workforce, according to YahooFinance. That year began with Wells Fargo's announcement it would make big reductions in its Des Moines-based home mortgage business as rising interest rates slashed demand.

Wells Fargo is also continuing to pull itself from a 2016 scandal in which employees had opened millions of fraudulent accounts, often to meet sales goals. As a result, federal regulators mandated additional oversight and imposed a $1.95 trillion asset cap that prevents the San Francisco-based bank from growing until it has fixed the problems.

In December, Wells Fargo sold a six-story West Des Moines building at 7001 Westown Parkway that formerly was the mortgage division's headquarters. It also has been emptying out several of its downtown Des Moines office buildings as it concentrates its remaining metro staff at the Jordan Creek Parkway campus.

Reuters contributed to this article.

Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Wells Fargo announces more Iowa layoffs as CEO gets pay increase