US banking giants shed over 17,000 employees in turbulent year

[January 13, 2024]  By Niket Nishant and Manya Saini

(Reuters) - Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup reduced their workforces by a combined 17,700 last year, the banking giants reported in their fourth-quarter earnings on Friday.

As dealmaking dried up and demand from borrowers softened last year, banks laid off employees or stopped replacing those who left.

JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest lender, bucked the trend by bolstering its ranks for a third straight year.

Challenging times for the industry could persist this year as weakness in commercial real estate and tougher proposed capital rules could prompt banks to pull back on lending.

Wall Street businesses suffered last year as economic uncertainty weighed on dealmaking.

While the S&P 500 banks index rose 7% in 2023, it underperformed indexes tracking industrial or consumer discretionary companies.

CITI OVERHAULS, GOLDMAN STEADIES SHIP

Citigroup's headcount fell by 1,000 to 239,000 employees in 2023, and the lender outlined plans to cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years including layoffs from a sweeping reorganization and other business changes.

At Bank of America and Wells Fargo the workforce contracted by about 2% and 5%, respectively, last year.

JPMorgan added more than 16,200 employees. The bank bought failed lender First Republic Bank in a rescue deal in May. It has added jobs every year since 2021.

A customer exits the lobby of JPMorgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York May 14, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are set to disclose their latest headcount next week. As of September end, they had cut over 4,300 jobs versus last year.

Earlier in 2023, Goldman Sachs undertook its biggest round of layoffs since the global financial crisis of 2008. In October, the bank's CFO Denis Coleman said they were in a position to do "selective investments" in headcount.

Bank Q4 '23 Q3 '23 Q2 '23 Q1 '23 Q4 '22

JPMorgan 309,926 308,669 300,066 296,877 293,723

Bank of 212,985 212,752 215,546 217,059 216,823

America

Wells Fargo 225,869 227,363 233,834 235,591 238,698

Citigroup 239,000 238,000 240,000 240,000 240,000

Goldman Sachs - 45,900 44,600 45,400 48,500

Morgan Stanley - 80,710 82,006 82,266 82,427

(Reporting by Niket Nishant and Manya Saini, editing by Lananh Nguyen and Nick Zieminski)

[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.