When Wells Fargo pulled the plug on its wholesale division earlier this month the future looked dicey for roughly 175 account executives that brought in residential loans through brokers. Now, Wells says it hopes to transition many of those AEs to other jobs at the bank.
“These team members have done an outstanding job for us,” said a bank spokeswoman. “We hope to place them in other positions here including retail and correspondent.”
The spokeswoman did not know how many AEs Wells employs. The 175 figure is an estimate supplied by two officials that are familiar with the bank’s unit.
Wells is now in the process of transferring some of those AEs. “It’s going smoothly,” the spokeswoman said but also admitted that in the end not all will be offered employment. “In that case they’ll get severance,” she added.
Paul Hindman, managing director of Management Advisors Executive Search, said he believes the best bet for the Wells AEs is to transition to retail lending and become loan officers that work directly with consumers.
“Or they might want to approach a community bank or credit union,” he said, using their talents for either retail or wholesale.
According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News, Wells was the nation’s largest wholesaler in the first quarter with a market share of almost 15%. However, wholesale accounts for just 5% of its overall business.
