Wells Fargo cut 16,452 jobs in a year; since 2022 the whole decline is in its US workforce.

The quarter

For the third quarter 2026, the company reported revenue of $21.9 billion and net income of $6.0 billion, up 6% from $5.6 billion a year earlier. Personnel expense was $276 million lower than a year earlier; the 10-Q attributes the decrease to “lower severance expense; and the impact of efficiency initiatives; partially offset by higher revenue-related compensation expense”.

“It will bring headcount down more, and as you grow, the effort you are going to need for every unit of growth … Whether headcount will be down every quarter forever, probably not, but we still have a lot more to do to continue to drive it.”

“Noninterest expense decreased 1%, driven by the impact of efficiency initiatives, including an 8% reduction in headcount, lower severance expense, and lower lease expense.”

The same titles, open abroad

On November 7, 2026, a search of the company’s careers site listed 9 openings with Fraud & Claims in the title: Taguig City, Philippines (4), Hyderabad, India (3), San Antonio, Texas (1), Charlotte, North Carolina (1). Among them, the Senior and Lead Fraud & Claims Operations Representative titles on the Roanoke letters were open in Hyderabad, and the Fraud & Claims Operations Associate title in Taguig City.

• Senior Fraud & Claims Operations Representative — Hyderabad, India
• Fraud & Claims Operations Representative — Hyderabad, India
• Fraud & Claims Operations Representative — San Antonio, Texas
• Fraud & Claims Operations Representative (Blended) — Taguig City, Philippines
• Lead Fraud & Claims Operations Representative — Hyderabad, India
• Fraud & Claims Operations Associate — Taguig City, Philippines
• Associate Fraud & Claims Operations Representative — Taguig City, Philippines
• Lead Fraud and Claims Operations Representative — Charlotte, North Carolina
• Fraud & Claims Operation Manager - Online Fraud Detection — Taguig City, Philippines

The keyword search "fraud claims operations" on wellsfargojobs.com on Nov. 7, 2026, which returned 1,081 postings; these are the nine on the first page of results with Fraud & Claims in the title, in the order shown. Openings are not hires.

What the records show — and what they don’t

• Where the work went. No filing names a country. The annual report gives one figure, the share of employees based in the United States; the India and Philippines headcounts that circulate online appear in no filing, and the larger ones exceed the roughly 49,000 employees the 2025 report places outside the United States altogether.
• Why. The company attributes its lower personnel expense to lower severance and efficiency initiatives. The records show the headcount decline, the WARN notices and the overseas postings in the same months; they do not show a cause.
• Most of the decline. WARN notices in the twelve months to Sept. 30, 2026 cover about one in ten of the 16,452-person drop. The rest is smaller than the WARN Act requires a notice for, or attrition, and no filing itemizes it.
• A visa story. The LCA record shows a few hundred certified filings a year, most for software roles in Charlotte at pay above the prevailing wage, and USCIS outcomes in the low hundreds through fiscal 2023, after which the hub's bulk files stop. The pattern in this record is work moving abroad, not visa workers here.
• Hires. The postings are openings on one day, not hires, and a title open in two countries says nothing about which one is filled.

How we counted

Headcount and the US-based share are quoted from the company’s filings with the SEC, linked in each table. WARN notices are every notice naming Wells Fargo in Footnote’s ledger of state WARN publications with a notice date in the window; the method note under the full table says how Iowa’s additions and Oregon’s two publications are counted. LCA figures count filings in DOL’s disclosure files with a certified decision, by the fiscal year of the file, any visa class the form covers; the medians are of the lowest annual wage attested and of the prevailing wage listed. USCIS figures sum the hub’s rows for every Wells Fargo entity. The careers search is dated and can be repeated at the link; results change daily. Same documents and definitions give the same numbers.