Wells Fargo slashes about 400 jobs in 2 months in India; more may follow

Wells Fargo’s technology centre in India has slashed about 400 jobs in the last two months, two people familiar with the matter said. This comes at a time when the fourth-largest US lender consolidates its operations in the country.

 

The redundancies are mostly related to the bank’s engineering division with more than 300 people shown the door in June. Also, close to 100 people were dismissed from the chief administrative office (CAO) this month, added the people. 

Wells Fargo India Solutions is a subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank operating as a global capability centre (GCC) to support the bank’s technology operations and shared-service functions. 

Along with the Philippines, it is also an extension of the corporate support team of the bank.

It engages in application development and support, testing, international operations, knowledge support, and middle and back-end banking process solutions. 

“They may have realised they grew too much too fast and now have excess manpower which needs to be realigned,” one of the sources, mentioned above, said. 

He added that these layoffs are expected to continue till the end of the third quarter (September 30) and many more employees are likely to be shown the door next month. Wells Fargo India did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Standard.  "We review and adjust staffing levels to align with market conditions and the needs of our businesses. We work hard to identify opportunities for employees in other parts of the company so we can retain as many employees as possible," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.   

 

Wells Fargo had three centres in India with Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai till last year, employing about 37,000 people.

It, however, decided to shut down its office in Chennai earlier this year and asked employees at the centre to relocate to the other two cities.   

At that time, the bank said this move allows it to prov ide more robust career growth opportunities and better service for its customers and clients. This change will be carried out in a phased manner over the next couple of years.

 

It was not immediately clear whether the GCC decided to lay off hundreds of engineers due to workplace consolidation or any other reason. 

Globally, technology companies have been laying off thousands since 2024 as artificial intelligence (AI) becomes pervasive and many regular tasks get automated. 

The recent layoffs, announced by companies such as Microsoft and Google, have cast fresh doubts about the roles and future of engineers. This is at a time when AI, Gen AI and AI agents are changing the technology landscape. 

Walmart’s technology centre in Bengaluru was also impacted when the world’s biggest retailer cut 1,500 jobs in May. This was across its technology unit, e-commerce fulfilment centre, and advertising segment.