CEO says he hopes to minimize job losses at Wells Fargo and Wachovia

By Rick Rothacker and Christina Rexrode - The Charlotte Observer

Wells Fargo Chief Executive John Stumpf, whose company officially bought Wachovia last week, said in an interview Wednesday that minimizing job losses in the acquisition will be a priority, but cuts will begin this year.

Stumpf said he does not know how many jobs will be lost in the merger and did not provide a specific timeframe for the start of layoffs. He said the San Francisco-based bank already has taken steps such as a freezing new hiring and posting open jobs internally to make it easier to keep em- ployees at both Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

"I can tell you there will be duplicative jobs and there will be job loss, I know that," Stumpf said in a phone interview. "How many that will be, I do not know. I'm a big pro-jobs person, and the more customers we have, the more jobs we need, the more space we need to have our people, so all of that works together."

Stumpf said some job cuts would begin this year, while others could take longer because of the gradual integration of the two companies.

"It happens over the three-year period," he said. "What we're hoping will happen is as we get further into this, we will grow the number of households, grow the number of customers we have, grow our business and need more people serving our customers, so as you see duplication in one area you see more opportunity in another area."

The company employs more than 20,000 workers in Charlotte, making it one of the region's biggest employers. Charlotte is the former headquarters of Wachovia, which Wells bought Dec. 31 in a deal valued at $12.7 billion.