Wells Fargo to Expand in Southland

Battling to attract Latino customers, Wells Fargo & Co. plans to add 25 branches with 400 employees this year in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, many of them in ethnically mixed neighborhoods.

The San Francisco-based bank, which will open 100 branches in the U.S. this year, sees Southern California as its greatest opportunity for growth because of the area’s expanding ethnic populations.

“We see an increasing demand in this market for financial services, particularly in our multicultural communities,” said Shelley Freeman, Wells Fargo’s community banking president for the region.

Latinos, for example, have the fastest growth in home and business ownership of any group in the nation, yet half of Latinos have no bank accounts or credit cards, she said.

The expansion plans include full-service branches in Ladera Heights, Los Feliz, Compton and Canyon Country, locations where Wells previously had closed a branch or downsized to an office inside a grocery store.

Wells rival Bank of America Corp., which is more concentrated in urban areas, is in the middle of a three-year plan to add 550 branches nationwide.