Wells Fargo filed a letter with state and city officials July 23 saying it is laying off 74 workers in Jacksonville as it exits one of its business units.
The letter filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act said the bank decided to exit the global operations business unit within its chief operating office.
The affected employees work at a Wells Fargo office at 3563 Philips Highway.
According to Wells Fargo’s website, the chief operating office “is responsible for delivering a more consistent approach to business operations across Wells Fargo, strengthening the company’s risk and control infrastructure, and delivering effective and efficient enterprise services to employees and customers.”
“These business decisions are never easy,” Senior Assistant Vice President Ashley Frazier said in the WARN letter sent to Mayor Donna Deegan and the State Trade and Rapid Response Program.
“We are very thoughtful and deliberate in our approach, understanding the impact these decisions have on individuals at the company.”
Frazier said the 74 employees were given 60 days notice July 23 and the company expects them to accept severance benefits and continue participating in the company’s health plan for an unspecified period of time.
In an unrelated move, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo recently decided to downsize its space in the 37-story Downtown office building which had been known as the Wells Fargo Center.
The Wells Fargo sign was removed from the tower, now known as 1 Independent Square, on July 14.
Wells Fargo did not make any announcements about layoffs at its Downtown office and has not filed any other WARN notices about layoffs this year.
Wells Fargo has the largest bank branch network in Northeast Florida with 41 branches in the Jacksonville metropolitan area as of June 30, 2023, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.