Last year was full of cuts and layoffs in Wells Fargo’s mortgage business as rising interest rates drove originations down. This year, it appears, is going to be just the opposite.
Interest rates have fallen for much of this year, and the latest projections are that those low interest rates are going to make 2019 the best year for mortgage originations since 2016.
And as a result, just one year after cutting more than 1,000 jobs from its mortgage business, Wells Fargo is now reportedly preparing to staff back up to keep up with the current mortgage environment.
Reuters reported Thursday that Wells Fargo is “boosting its teams that process mortgage loans to prepare for higher mortgage volumes,” citing an internal memo.
According to Reuters, “many” of the hires will be in Des Moines, Iowa and Minneapolis, both of which were impacted by the layoffs of 2018.
The Reuters report stated that the staffing plans are “fluid,” and noted that the bank did not place a specific number on its hiring push. Regardless, Wells Fargo appears to be back in expansion mode after a year of cuts.
Last year, the bank revealed that it planned to cut as many as 26,500 of its employees over the next few years as the bank works to reorganize itself.
Among those cuts were more than a thousand people in the company’s mortgage division.
In August 2018, it was reported that the bank was laying off 638 mortgage lending employees in different parts of the country. Earlier that year, the bank announced it was laying off 100 employees at a North Carolina mortgage office, and another 63 mortgage employees at a Maryland office.
And in November 2018, the bank said that it would be eliminating 900 jobs in the company’s home lending division. According to the bank, the cuts were due to “ongoing decreases in the number of customers in default who as well as declines in application volume.”
Of those 900 job cuts, approximately 400 were in Des Moines.
But now, Wells Fargo is hanging a metaphorical “help wanted” sign and hiring again.
