. . . the Des Moines, Iowa and Fort Mill, South Carolina sites are major consumer lending and underwriting sites. Minneapolis, Minnesota has a gigantic home mortgage campus with consumer lending and underwriting as well. There is also a large one somewhere in Arizona I believe. This is not uncommon for Wells Fargo to lay off during the slow times and then hire a ton of contractors a few months later to come in and work for them and continue the cycle of a bunch of layoffs and then a bunch of hiring again a few months after that. Everyone here in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area knows that Wells Fargo is a revolving door when it comes to their mortgage division and everyone who has ever been in this industry has done some kind of a stint at Wells Fargo.
I see that many notary signing agents are not busy with Wells Fargo closings, but due to the fact that they have such a huge presence here in Minnesota, I do quite a few of them. I just did one today as a matter of fact. I think I am doing at least eight to ten per month . . . not nearly as many as a couple of my other lenders who seem to be hot in this area right now . . . but I am still getting them. US Bank was busy here but they have fallen off the face of the earth, and so has Chase.
Wells Fargo is most likely regrouping, getting rid of their employees and bringing in contractors so they don't have to pay benefits and can get rid of them without notice. I just drove past the gigantic Wells Fargo campus here in Minneapolis this week and it appears they are building a new parking structure so something has to be going on. It's not time for Plan B just yet. |