Banking giant Wells Fargo has announced yet another round of job cuts, this time laying off 35 more employees in August 2025 from its operations in Des Moines, Iowa. This adds to a continuing wave of job reductions at one of the bank’s key domestic locations, taking the total number of layoffs in the region to over 1,240 since April 2022.

The announcement was posted on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) system, which tracks large-scale layoffs. The latest update follows a May filing, in which the bank revised earlier estimates to include 159 more roles being cut across May, June, and July.

In a statement released in May, Wells Fargo said it remains committed to supporting affected employees by offering alternative roles within the organisation, severance pay, and career counselling services.

“Des Moines is an important employment market for Wells Fargo, and we are committed to serving our customers and supporting the community,” the company noted.

While the company did not specify which business units are impacted, industry observers and local analysts believe the home mortgage division—which has a large presence in the Des Moines region—is at the centre of the cuts. The business has come under pressure due to rising interest rates and falling mortgage demand in the United States.

The mortgage business, once a major driver of Wells Fargo’s staffing needs in the area, has shrunk substantially. The bank’s headcount in Des Moines fell from a peak of 14,500 in 2017 to just over 11,000, according to data from the Greater Des Moines Partnership. This puts it behind local retail giant Hy-Vee, which now employs more than 12,000 people.

The layoffs come amid slowing consumer lending activity in the U.S. market—a concern that was publicly acknowledged by Wells Fargo’s Chief Financial Officer, Mike Santomassimo, during the Morgan Stanley U.S. Financials Conference on 10 June 2025.

“I wouldn’t expect large growth on the consumer side in any way—potentially even a net decline,” Santomassimo said, according to a Reuters report.

His comments reflect the broader caution among American banks, who are seeing tighter consumer demand for loans and credit, owing to high borrowing costs and economic uncertainty.

The latest news is part of a larger trend affecting the financial and insurance industry in Des Moines, a key midwestern business hub. In a separate development, F&G Annuities and Life, a Des Moines-headquartered insurance firm, announced in late May that it would be laying off 192 employees, dealing another blow to the city’s financial ecosystem.

Des Moines has long been considered a stronghold for financial services in the American Midwest, but like many regional centres, it is facing disruption from remote work, digital transformation, and changing business priorities.

Despite the ongoing layoffs, there has been some positive movement for the bank at a regulatory level. Earlier this month, the U.S. Federal Reserve lifted a seven-year cap on Wells Fargo’s asset size, which had been imposed in 2018 as a penalty following a series of compliance failures. The cap had limited the bank to $1.95 trillion in total assets, effectively curbing its expansion.

With that restriction now removed, Wells Fargo is once again free to pursue unrestricted growth, though near-term plans still seem focused on cost optimisation and organisational restructuring.

As of 2025, Wells Fargo remains the fourth-largest bank in the United States, with over $1.7 trillion in assets and headquarters in San Francisco.