European banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG have since said they would resume reductions, but U.S. banks have held firm.
Some firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., have indicated they’ll maintain their pledge through the end of the 2020. Wells Fargo has been more conservative, implementing a shorter moratorium and then adjusting it, people with knowledge of the planning said. Its current freeze expires this month, though it could be extended.
The firm’s expenses have surged in recent years on legal costs, remediation and fines related to a series of scandals that began with the 2016 revelation that employees opened unauthorized customer accounts to meet sales goals. Yet its job cuts have been relatively modest over the past decade, a period in which Bank of America shrank its workforce by about 80,000 people. Wells Fargo has more people than its top competitor, JPMorgan, despite pulling in about $30 billion less revenue last year.
Scharf was known as a cost-cutter when the board enlisted him, and he’s warned there will be much work to be done once he finishes a review aimed at reviving profitability. The CEO said in May that he hopes to create a road map for the company by the end of the year.
Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry gave a glimpse of what’s ahead at a conference last month: “There will come a time, and I assume at some point this year, when we get back to executing on programs that are in place, and some that are still under development, that are designed to get our total expense base, which for us means our total headcount, to as lean a state as we can responsibly operate.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.