Wells Fargo Is Weighing Changes to Wealth Unit Amid Cost-Cutting

(Bloomberg) -- Wells Fargo & Co. is considering restructuring its wealth-management business as the bank pushes for $4 billion in cost-cuts by the end of next year.

“Our wealth and investment-management group is reimagining our business to become more efficient,” spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu said in an emailed statement. “Whatever the outcome, we will continue to serve our clients across multiple channels.”

The San Francisco-based lender may trim about 1,000 jobs through attrition and cut 100 regional managers, the Wall Street Journal reported late Monday citing sources it didn’t identify.

No final decisions have been made, Leordeanu said in the statement.

Overhauling the wealth-management unit would mark the latest cost-cutting effort by the bank, which has seen expenses climb in recent years amid regulatory fines and higher legal costs stemming from a fake-account scandal that exploded in 2016. Wealth-management head Jon Weiss said at the firm’s investor day last month that the unit is targeting around $600 million in savings by 2020.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hannah Levitt in New York at hlevitt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael J. Moore at mmoore55@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Alan Goldstein

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