Layoffs

Offices impacted are located in Chicago, Cincinnati and Kansas City, a company representative said Wednesday.

The Philadelphia-based company will eliminate an undisclosed number of jobs as part of a plan to refocus on core business lines and markets, CEO Thomas Geisel said.

The layoffs come as the fintech is still working to close the SPAC merger it announced in August 2021.

The bank was already mulling headcount and compensation reductions in early September.

The fintech is also relying more heavily on its bank charter as rising interest rates make selling loans to investors more challenging.

The economy is poised to rebound, meaning loan demand and hiring will pick up, some observers say. Others argue that banks have plenty of reasons to cut jobs given industry consolidation, the growth of digital banking and expectations that low interest rates will persist.

Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Northern Trust have even more reason to slash costs than commercial banks because their options to boost revenue are more limited. Problem is, they also have fewer cost-cutting options.

CEO Charlie Scharf disappointed investors by failing to provide either a detailed road map for long-term expense reductions or say when he might release such a plan.

Wells Fargo cut more than 700 commercial banking jobs as it embarks on workforce reductions that could ultimately number in the tens of thousands, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The reductions will affect less than 1% of Citi's global workforce, and with recent hiring the overall headcount probably won’t decline, the company said.