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The three Hawaii offices of Wells Fargo Financial are among 638 nationwide that will close in the next 60 days as Iowa-based parent company, Wells Fargo & Co., restructures its consumer finance operations.
Calls to local offices were referred to corporate communications, which did not have the exact number of local workers who would lose their jobs. There are three Wells Fargo Financial offices in Hawaii: in Pearl City and Waipahu on Oahu, and in Wailuku, Maui. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage offices will remain open.
Wells Fargo Financial offices typically employ between five and 17 people depending on location, and some of the staff at closing offices may be retained and moved rather than laid off, said spokesman Steve Carlson.
The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has not received a notice of the closure, according to spokesman Ryan Markham.
Wells Fargo & Co. employs 278,000 people including 120,000 in its community banks, 35,000 in its Wells Fargo Home Mortgage operations and 14,000 in Wells Fargo Financial. Of the 14,000, some 2,800 positions will be eliminated in the next 60 days and another 1,000 "largely in staff support and technology functions in Des Moines … will be eliminated over the next 12 months," said Carlson. The 3,800 job cuts represent about 27 percent of Wells Fargo Financial’s employees.
All are being encouraged to apply for positions within the company, and terminated employees will receive severance and outplacement assistance.
Wells Fargo said it will no longer originate nonprime mortgage loans, but Carlson said other consumer loans will continue to be originated and serviced.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
