Wells to Close 260 Branches, 30 Fewer than Initially Expected

Shedding a surplus of offices after acquiring First Interstate Bancorp, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. said Wednesday that it will close 260 branches statewide, about 30 fewer than anticipated.

Coupled with 61 offices sold at the end of March, Wells will eliminate 321 branches from its network by the time the closings are complete Sept. 1. The bank kept the additional locations to create smaller branch centers with limited services.

Wells had said that it would sell or close about 350 branches following the First Interstate acquisition. It sold 61 branches to Home Savings of America in late March to satisfy state and federal antitrust concerns.

The state’s second-largest bank will lay off about 2,000 branch employees, said Wells spokeswoman Kim Kellogg. It will decide by May 15 which workers will be dismissed.

Those workers will then have a chance to interview for about 900 job openings that now exist, she said. Wells froze most hiring in October when it launched its hostile takeover bid, and First Interstate froze hiring in December. Attrition since then has created vacancies.

With one of the nation’s biggest bank mergers under its belt April 1, Wells is moving quickly to integrate the First Interstate system and streamline operations.

Branch employees to be laid off will have jobs until at least Sept. 1. Some of the employees will remain through the end of the year to complete the transition, Kellogg said.

Wells already has announced the dismissals of 1,700 administration and headquarters employees and still expects to lay off a total of 7,200 workers by the end of the year, she said.