Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

I’ve worked in distributed retail mortgage for almost 30 yrs . Almost my entire successful team was termed but not me ?
There were $100m producers let go . It will be all banks HMCs sitting in banks soon .

It is truly incredible how a business line can be destroyed so quickly. Sitting idle month after month. What happened to compete, compete. Maybe it will be studied in textbooks someday because I can’t believe my eyes.

I'd like to echo the previous posts and confirm Fercho was an absolute nuclear bo-b DE&I double whammy that obliterated home lending into the dust.

As an UW that supports some of those top producers, I hope not! Never say never... but so far they are treated like royalty. Whatever they say goes. You could have a loan that doesn't qualify with 7+ exceptions and they always get them approved.

"Will Wells Fargo still have commission based distributed retail mortgage bankers in 5 years?"

NO

Why pay these people commission when my phone app for Rocket Mortgage is quicker to get my rate, fees disclosure and my approval than any WF mortgage banker I ever met. Cost per loan goes way down when you kick the middle-man to the curb. And what are they going to do for work? Too bad.

Wells didn’t need TARP money because of the sales practice, not due to solid strategic decisions. Those allegations emerged as far back as 2004. If all other banks were failing at the time, but WF didn’t, you have to ask “why?” The answer: Sales. Practice. (Stumpf’s “butterflies and rainbows” or ‘good news only’ mandate at the OC level created a culture where leaders would hide critical issues facing the enterprise. Source: American Banker 5-part series which was thoroughly researched over several years)

You should read the American Banker 5 part series that was recently released. There was an excerpt from Carrie’s review written by him, stating that the LA Times bad press was making her back off of her 8 is great initiative. She then doubled down and pushed it further. So Stumpf most definitely played a part in the sales practice scandal. It was Carrie’s doing, but he definitely played a supporting role, causing him to be fined by the government and his bonuses clawed back.

Stumpf isn’t my hero. The fake account garbage notwithstanding, he managed the bank extremely well, as did his predecessor. I think you understand he had no involvement in that. Obviously he takes the heat as the CEO but it was a few hundred people responsible out of like 250,000.

Under Stumpf and Kovacevich Wells Fargo was the most revenue generating and best capitalized large bank in the country. They didn’t need TARP money even thioigh they were forced to take it. Stumpf was basically forced out because he was humiliated in a senate hearing, not because of his management.

Scharf & co decided they didn’t like the folksy stagecoach and being the bank of main street. He’d love to axe mortgage and instead focus on investment banking, wealth, etc. And woke virtue signaling, DEI “townhalls”, etc.

Ya stumpf would have rather enabled fake accounts for 7+ years. Reminiscing about that man is the reason some leaders aren’t fans of longtime employees.

Find a new superhero.

Stumpf belongs in prison.

Yep. Fercho was a terrible hire. She immediately severed the relationship between mortgage and WFA and told us it was because “we didn’t work the relationship” hard enough. The capture rate with the current centralized team is even shittier. I think her incompetence was evident even to senior leadership as she was “transitioned” to a new role as DEI director within a year.

Kristy Fercho ran this business into the ground completely in an impressively short time. I’m amazed at how much this all changed from a decade ago when we absolutely dominated this space. There were industry disrupters, sure, but I still think we blew it here. Stumpf wouldn’t have let that happen.