BankTown Banking & Finance News

[KJHburg]

Take a look at the headline from San Fran Biz Times about the new NY based Wells CFO.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/07/21/wells-fargo-names-new-cfo.html

It is LONG overdue  and time  to head this stagecoach South by Southeast from SanFran to the QC

(in Fort Mill spring 2017) 

and yes I did my ride as a preferred customer LOL with a Wachovia checkbook cover. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by KJHburg

[CLT1]

In WSJ this morning (Wells Fargo Tightens Purse Strings to Ride Out Coronavirus Pandemic) - "At the bank, changes are visible in the day-to-day. Managers are being instructed to hire workers in cheaper hubs like Minneapolis and Charlotte, N.C.; a separate layer of human-resources approval is required to hire in expensive cities, like its home base of San Francisco, according to people familiar with the matter."

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, CLT1 said:

In WSJ this morning (Wells Fargo Tightens Purse Strings to Ride Out Coronavirus Pandemic) - "At the bank, changes are visible in the day-to-day. Managers are being instructed to hire workers in cheaper hubs like Minneapolis and Charlotte, N.C.; a separate layer of human-resources approval is required to hire in expensive cities, like its home base of San Francisco, according to people familiar with the matter."

welcome CLT1 and why not Wells just move out of San Fran and call it cost cutting move.  California is a very expensive place to hire anyone operate it and with mountains higher than the Sierra Nevada of regulations.  GET OUT come south by southeast.  

[CLT704]

I’m going to call it right now, Wells Fargo will move their headquarters out of San Francisco to reduce costs. I can’t imagine it’ll be to New York so either us or Minneapolis. 
 

I’d guess Charlotte. Wells Fargo’s recent shuffle includes the Duke Energy Center: with WF taking up more space in DEC and Duke’s new tower, it would not surprise me in the least to see DEC renamed Wells Fargo Corporate Center. 
 

You’ve got at least 4 buildings Uptown (2WFC, 3WFC, DEC and 300 Brevard), the CIC, and Ballantyne. Plenty of space for all the support workers. 

Edited July 25, 2020 by CLT704

[Desert Power]

28 minutes ago, CLT704 said:

I’m going to call it right now, Wells Fargo will move their headquarters out of San Francisco to reduce costs. I can’t imagine it’ll be to New York so either us or Minneapolis. 
 

I’d guess Charlotte. Wells Fargo’s recent shuffle includes the Duke Energy Center: with WF taking up more space in DEC and Duke’s new tower, it would not surprise me in the least to see DEC renamed Wells Fargo Corporate Center. 
 

You’ve got at least 4 buildings Uptown (2WFC, 3WFC, DEC and 300 Brevard), the CIC, and Ballantyne. Plenty of space for all the support workers. 

And they will need less space after the massive layoffs!

[SydneyCarton]

3 hours ago, CLT704 said:

I’m going to call it right now, Wells Fargo will move their headquarters out of San Francisco to reduce costs. I can’t imagine it’ll be to New York so either us or Minneapolis. 
 

I’d guess Charlotte. Wells Fargo’s recent shuffle includes the Duke Energy Center: with WF taking up more space in DEC and Duke’s new tower, it would not surprise me in the least to see DEC renamed Wells Fargo Corporate Center. 
 

You’ve got at least 4 buildings Uptown (2WFC, 3WFC, DEC and 300 Brevard), the CIC, and Ballantyne. Plenty of space for all the support workers. 

Realistically speaking, I can see the HQ going to NY because that’s where all top bankers are, but masses of employees could be relocated to Charlotte.  
 

Also, there’s talk of GS acquiring Wells.  Goldman wants a retail presence, and Wells want an IB presence.  That being said, a Goldman acquisition of Wells might face opposition in Congress.  

US Bank is also on Goldman’s list of targets

Now that Goldman has settled the Malaysian claim, it may be ready to pounce.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by SydneyCarton

[CLT2014]

Here's the problem with an HQ change for Wells...

San Francisco = historical HQ, a couple key execs still here including CFO
New York City = where the vast majority of the management team lives, including CEO
Charlotte = largest employment hub, but only 2 of the 17 members of management team based here 

An HQ announcement that "Charlotte is now our HQ, except none of the management team is moving there and will remain the location of just 11% of our management team" accomplishes nothing and will just bring more attention to the Wells exec team living in New York separate from most of the employees. Given the execs want to stay in NY, I think they would prefer to minimize attention to an HQ location. Hence leaning into San Francisco being a "historical HQ" is the easiest solution. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by CLT2014

[navigator319]

9 hours ago, CLT2014 said:

Here's the problem with an HQ change for Wells...

San Francisco = historical HQ, a couple key execs still here including CFO
New York City = where the vast majority of the management team lives, including CEO
Charlotte = largest employment hub, but only 2 of the 17 members of management team based here 

An HQ announcement that "Charlotte is now our HQ, except none of the management team is moving there and will remain the location of just 11% of our management team" accomplishes nothing and will just bring more attention to the Wells exec team living in New York separate from most of the employees. Given the execs want to stay in NY, I think they would prefer to minimize attention to an HQ location. Hence leaning into San Francisco being a "historical HQ" is the easiest solution. 

While I don't disagree with this its not taking into account costs.  They seem desperate to cut cost.  The business tax is 3.5% lower in NC.  While does not sound crazy different Wells has net income of ~22 billion.

3.5% of 22 billion is  770 million.   They could file some paperwork tomorrow to save this. 

Also as an fyi because of the 2018 corp tax cut they got a cut of ~3.2 billion tax cut and have been paying this amount lower since then.  Cause a company making 22 billion already really needs that.

[CLT2014]

51 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

While I don't disagree with this its not taking into account costs.  They seem desperate to cut cost.  The business tax is 3.5% lower in NC.  While does not sound crazy different Wells has net income of ~22 billion.

3.5% of 22 billion is  770 million.   They could file some paperwork tomorrow to save this. 

Also as an fyi because of the 2018 corp tax cut they got a cut of ~3.2 billion tax cut and have been paying this amount lower since then.  Cause a company making 22 billion already really needs that.

Making NC the HQ in title doesn't specifically save costs though. They could reduce SF by 50% to a 4,000 person operation, transfer people to Charlotte to save money, and still leave SF as the historical HQ. The tax is based on bodies, not an official HQ label. 

The case for NY as the defacto HQ grows. Looks like new CFO will be NYC based as well: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wells-fargo-cfo/wells-fargo-appoints-cfo-as-part-of-leadership-shakeup-idUSKCN24M1R7

[SydneyCarton]

The bottom line is that wherever the official HQ is, Charlotte will continue to get more and more jobs.  Hopefully, Wells will build another tower in Uptown.

[KJHburg]

Read this from the San Fran Biz Times about Wells not being able to really hire in high cost locales like oh the Bay area.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/07/28/wells-fargo-hiring-hurdles-san-francisco.html

[Blue_Devil]

8 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

Read this from the San Fran Biz Times about Wells not being able to really hire in high cost locales like oh the Bay area.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2020/07/28/wells-fargo-hiring-hurdles-san-francisco.html

Wells does have a hiring freeze across the board. It will get better in 6 months after the re-org.

[CLT704]

58 minutes ago, Blue_Devil said:

Wells does have a hiring freeze across the board. It will get better in 6 months after the re-org.

As someone trying to decide between a job offer with Wells Fargo and another company, the whole re-rog and hiring freeze is really filling me with dread and making my decision almost impossible. 

[Blue_Devil]

9 hours ago, CLT704 said:

As someone trying to decide between a job offer with Wells Fargo and another company, the whole re-rog and hiring freeze is really filling me with dread and making my decision almost impossible. 

Do you already have a job offer with Wells? The internal culture is great, and the layoffs and re-org are necessary. The CEO, Charlie Scharf has a vision. The layoffs are not COVID related and are really focusing on streamlining and removing redundancy. All in all, in 5 years Wells Fargo will be one of the strongest banks in the world. The biggest thing will be dealing with the reputation issues.

[Desert Power]

2 hours ago, Blue_Devil said:

Do you already have a job offer with Wells? The internal culture is great, and the layoffs and re-org are necessary. The CEO, Charlie Scharf has a vision. The layoffs are not COVID related and are really focusing on streamlining and removing redundancy. All in all, in 5 years Wells Fargo will be one of the strongest banks in the world. The biggest thing will be dealing with the reputation issues.

It really isn't

[Blue_Devil]

2 minutes ago, Desert Power said:

It really isn't

Yah, it really is... 

[elrodvt]

Point of reference from an outsider to the business. I'll never do business with them again. Not trustworthy and plenty of other choices. Although my preference is credit unions which are sort of deficient here.

Edited July 29, 2020 by elrodvt

[videtur quam contuor]

Credit union has been my choice for 20+ years. Bank lost me with "wallet share", fee for service, and endless rotation of branch staff. Branch staff were important in the 90's.

For company, corporate, foreign exchange, letters of credit, factoring, investment banking, wealth administration and more, then banks have a place. For me and my personal transactions and occasional credit needs I want a place where I am a member and treated as a member and not a "wallet". Banks can go on with their campaigns about "change". I made my own change. I regret only that I waited as long as I did to make the change.

[tozmervo]

27 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

Credit union has been my choice for 20+ years. Bank lost me with "wallet share", fee for service, and endless rotation of branch staff. Branch staff were important in the 90's.

For company, corporate, foreign exchange, letters of credit, factoring, investment banking, wealth administration and more, then banks have a place. For me and my personal transactions and occasional credit needs I want a place where I am a member and treated as a member and not a "wallet". Banks can go on with their campaigns about "change". I made my own change. I regret only that I waited as long as I did to make the change.

My family have been CU devotees for decades. I married into a family that has always used one of the big banks. I am often expressing surprise at some of the stupid nonsense they put up with for that privilege. 

[elrodvt]

Which CU do you use? Denver had a ton of strong ones to choose from. There one we picked had free atm at 7-11's.

Edited July 29, 2020 by elrodvt

[tozmervo]

44 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

Which CU do you use? Denver had a ton of strong ones to choose from. There one we picked had free atm at 7-11's.

I use NC State Employees CU, which I've been very happy with. They don't quite have mobile check deposit, but otherwise their tech meets my needs. I also have a loan with Charlotte Metro: fortunately it's on auto pay, because they are definitely behind on their tech. Their website is super frustrating.

[videtur quam contuor]

^^Same here. SECU is the second largest Credit Union in the U. S. US Navy is #1. Many resources, branches, ATM. 

[elrodvt]

2 hours ago, tozmervo said:

I use NC State Employees CU, which I've been very happy with. They don't quite have mobile check deposit, but otherwise their tech meets my needs. I also have a loan with Charlotte Metro: fortunately it's on auto pay, because they are definitely behind on their tech. Their website is super frustrating.

That's ridiculous though. 15 year or so old tech??? I don't think I can tolerate that either!

What else haven't they figured out? Do they have two factor authentication? I should just go back to the one in Denver if I can. I never go in person anyway. Plus they had partnerships with several others it you really needed to. PSCU (public service).

Edited July 29, 2020 by elrodvt

[KJHburg]

On the ballot in November in San Fran watch more HQs leave as several already have and will Wells Fargo follow?

https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21148139/san-francisco-voters-to-decide-on-new-ceo-tax

[SydneyCarton]

On 7/30/2020 at 9:15 AM, KJHburg said:

On the ballot in November in San Fran watch more HQs leave as several already have and will Wells Fargo follow?

https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/tax-compliance/news/21148139/san-francisco-voters-to-decide-on-new-ceo-tax

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.  The hope for luring from NY is not good though.  In addition to the new multi billion dollar campus that JP Morgan Chase is building in Manhattan, Blackstone announced yesterday that they seek a new 1m sf HQ, which likely will be in a new 1,500’ tower planned at 350 Park, AIG just leased several hundred thousand sf for its new HQ.  IBM seeks 500k sf to supplement its world HQ in the suburbs.  Raymond James and Tik Tok also learned around 500k sf between them within the last month.

Nonetheless, Charlotte can easily get the lower level staff, which is hardly slim pickings.  Thousands of jobs paying $125,000 annually would be a nice addition to the QC and should support more office construction.

Edited July 31, 2020 by SydneyCarton