Yesterday was the CRG Governance & Supervision town hall. The future of the St louis location was discussed. For once a Sr leader was honest with the submitted questions:
1- Was asked if WFA is going to stay in STL. Leader paused & answered the questions very carefully. "STL is no longer a growth area". Said flat out they expect the firm to reduce to 1 building (and obvious reduce headcount). Said "that's been the plan all along since AG Edwards". He doesn't expect the St louis campus to close any time soon but it will it's pretty clear STL is no longer a core focus for the firm and will be reducing its footprint.
2- 4 day in-office work week across the firm? Answered would not be shocked but was not his announcement to make. Would come from 1 level up. (ie: its happening but not disclosing when). Explained some groups are already 4 & 5 days in the office.
3- AI will not take your jobs but ironically started the town hall acknowledging there were significant layoffs the day (Tueday) before and some people listed on the handout were already terminated.
It was refreshing to hear a leader be honest even though it was not the most positive answers. It is very clear from the responses that St Louis is not a priority for WFA anymore. How long it will last is unknown. Needless to say the auditorium in STL had a lot of shocked faces but not unexpected.
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@b9 My husband has been there since AGE. He said he actually enjoyed going to work when it was AGE. They cared about their employees.
I've been monitoring the STL job openings since I started in 2017. We used to be neck and neck with Charlotte and Minneapolis until about 2023 with total job postings. WIM, especially brokerage ops, is safe. Des Moines is for some reason a hub....F Des Moines. They don't even have a professional sports team!
They have been relocating whole teams to Charlotte all year. Not a surprise at all.
This is until some higher up gets hired like they did in Des Moines and then they conveniently change the narrative to match their executive hire.
For a company so large and profitable, they don’t even need to find a buyer for the St. Louis campus - they can just take the loss.
STL's future? Former hub.
We also learned his favorite color is orange.
@e1 the real shock is EJ and them going through a big culture shift. I wouldn't doubt that they sell or go public in the next 5 years.
Also, don't forget Scottrade turning into dust in STL.
It won't happen, but I wonder if WF is looking for a major acquisition in the wealth management space. MS buying eTrade was genius. Maybe a Wealthfront or something. I doubt they'd go regional like First Union used to do. I think we missed a great chance at First Republic due to the asset cap.
@b9 eh...AGE was bought out by Richmond or First Union people. NY didn't come into play until Barry Sommers.
I do agree though that they didn't intend to get down to one building in 2008. A lot of things have changed since 2020 around here and none of it was predicted. Up to and including 90% of senior management leaving to start &Partners.
St. Louis as a whole is not the financial hub it used to be. Ed Jones is restructuring, Stifel has laid off. The smaller firms are doing ok. Just a whole different world.
You should have seen the campus in 2007 when it was still A.G Edwards. It extended to both sides of Jefferson. Employees getting served holiday meals by the executives. Just a totally different culture. The NYC values destroyed the bank’s culture.
The people in the county need to wake up and realize a city-county merger benefits them. There is so much waste duplicating services, especially when you count the insane number of municipalities across the county with their own police forces just to hand out traffic tickets with their own mayors and city councils getting paid.
The county voters would get greater say in what happens across the region. Don’t like how the city is ran? In a merger, you now get a vote. It would stop the region cannibalizing itself with the various municipalities bidding against each other for businesses.
@ax Take a look at the Galleria Mall in St. Louis. The owner is seeking a buyer for six acres of the property. Unfortunately, the mall has deteriorated significantly, and it feels unsafe to walk outside after dark. It reeks of pot smell all the time. To encourage economic growth, the city should consider offering tax incentives to companies interested in establishing operations in St. Louis.
@ax - My office was in a small PA city that suffers from the same and WF exited the building during COVID and moved a skeleton crew to a tiny temporary office in the suburbs and left the remainder such as technology remote. So our fate was sealed either way: remote and non-hub are obviously targeted. The writing was on the wall way before when leadership began outsourcing most technology positions. This maybe the fate for St Louis.
I've been grieving over what's happening to St. Louis for some time now...not just at Wells Fargo, but in our city as a whole. I joined WFA in 2014 and our campus was vibrant. Things have changed so dramatically, and it just pains me to see where we are. People in our city are hard-working, kind, and have a lot to offer. It really su-ks to see my fellow St. Louisans overlooked because...well, whatever the reason. Crime, terrible infrastructure, bad schools, etc. tend to cloud over the beautiful parts of our city. I wish I had solutions, but for now, all I can offer is this affirmation of our collective grief.
OP, that is EXACTLY how they used to describe Portland. St Louis will close. Just a matter of time.
They prefer dallas and charlotte because there is influx of cheap labor in those cities.
The city of St. Louis is dangerous and it’s a dump.
- St. Louis resident
"that's been the plan all along since AG Edwards".
No it wasn’t. STL was a growth market for WIM and tech until 2023.
It was all about other cities offering tax advantages.
STL wasn't a ficus as soon as NYC took over. Surprised they even know where STL is.
The good news for a lot of those in WFA is that they know they can't lift everyone out to another city or backfill all that brokerage knowledge someone else. Though they could still be silly enough to try.
If you aren't related to WFA though and in STL? Doesn't look good.
Also, as for the buildings, I doubt much changes because they wouldn't be able to find a buyer. Probably won't be in eating though, that's for sure l.
They are spending 100s of millions in renovations in Charlotte & the new Dallas campus. That’s their focus now.
F Bagby.
AI is most definitely taking jobs. Almost every company in the USA is trying to stay flat, or reducing headcount in anticipation of net productivity gains through AI.
Writings been on the wall for a while now. PL just confirmed it.
I was there. I think 1/2 the crowd was stunned & other 1/2 was “I told this was happening”.