Wells Fargo was declared the largest US banking sector employer way back on 31st December 2020. The famous bank had more than 233,000 employees at that time. This was a little more than the number of all JP Morgan Chase employees. JP Morgan Chase is considered to be the US' largest bank. Overall, Wells Fargo is deemed to be the third-largest US bank (in terms of capitalization). It, however, has the highest number of branches, hence a higher number of employees. Notably, during the last decade, the number of FDIC-insured bank employees fluctuated considerably from 1.96 million in 2012 to 1.94 million in 2019. Nevertheless, there isn't a clear downward trend with regards to bank employment within the US. Analysts have, however, observed that the number of bank branches has declined steadily in the past few years.
As noted, the industries' big four are JPMorgan Chase, followed by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup in that order. JPMorgan Chase holds a distinction as the world's leading bank. By July 2020, JPMorgan Chase had some 433.5 billion US dollars in market capitalization. Wells Fargo is said to be pushing back its office return schedule; regardless, banks like Huntington and US Bank stand pat. The twin city banks have already ventured to bring their employees back. Many of the largest banks have a majority of their workers back in the office. The San Francisco-based Wells Fargo, as well as the 18,000 employees based in Minnesota, are mostly working at home.
Recently the US Bancorp (based in Minneapolis) pushed its return to office schedule to a later date in the fourth quarter. The bank has 13,000 employees in Minneapolis and another 5,000 employees in the larger Minnesota. A spokesman said that- in the meantime- the bank's schedwouldwill remain as it is. On its part, the Bremer Financial Corp (based in St Paul) did not indicate when it plans to bring back the employees to the offices. Thus, the 800 corporate employees continue working remotely. In a statement, the bank's spokeswoman said: "We're still evaluating our position depending on the virus' incidence rate. We are- meanwhile- keeping our employee and customer safety as a top priority.
Huntington Bank, which now owns the TCF Bank, has maintained its current operating schedule in the meantime. A spokesman told the Business Journal that the bank's return to office plans had been put on hold. The bank hoped to revisit its timing later on. Huntington Bank has about 1600 employees working in the twin cities. During the last summer, employees of the Old National Bancorp were welcome back to work. But the company made it optional for those who preferred it. Further, the Associated Bank was expected to reopen the corporate offices and resume operations at the end of the year.
The bank's decision to resume full operations was reached with a keen consideration of the institution's established safety protocols. The management also considered factors like the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine. It intended to give an opportunity to employees who wished to benefit from a new, flexible work arrangement to seize it. The Associated Bank's senior public relations manager, Jennifer Kaminsky, said that a small percentage of the company's employees would, however, continue to work remotely.
Also, Bridgewater Bank announced that it had some 95% of the employees reporting back to the office. The management said all its offices were 100% open; this includes the bank's corporate office. Jerry Baack, the President, and CEO of Bridgewater Bank, was speaking to news reporters from various media houses. The bank employs about 200 people. A spokesperson of Merchants Bank said that the institution had instructed most of the employees to return back to the office. A few others were still working remotely. This was according to the bank's president and CEO, Greg Evans.
The executive said: "At the moment, all the Merchants Bank employees who deal face-to-face with customers are back in their regular stations. Because of the surge and uncertainty that was previously associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, the majority of our shared-services personnel continued to work remotely for some time. We will allow a few vulnerable employees to continue working remotely," he concluded.
A spokesperson of BMO Harris said that a large percentage of the bank's employees had already returned to work and were stationed at various locations throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period. The bank said it would continue inviting employees to return to the office gradually throughout the rest of the calendar year.