SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan today shared progress with team members on the company’s ongoing transformation, which addresses industry trends and changes in customer behavior, during a regularly scheduled companywide town hall meeting.

Sloan, who hosts bi-monthly town halls broadcast live to all team members, noted that through these efforts, Wells Fargo is continuing to make fundamental changes designed to make the company more customer-focused, streamlined, and better positioned for long-term success and operational excellence. This work includes strengthening risk management, simplifying operations, leveraging digital automation, divesting non-core businesses, and continuing to become a more efficient company.

“We are continuing to transform Wells Fargo to deliver what customers want – including innovative, customer-friendly products and services – and evolving our business model to meet those needs in a more streamlined and efficient manner,” said Sloan.

Given changing customer preferences, including the accelerating adoption of digital self-service capabilities, the focus on operational excellence, and ongoing commitment to efficiency, the company expects headcount to decline by approximately 5 to 10 percent within the next three years. This decline would reflect displacements as well as normal team member attrition over that period.

“Wells Fargo takes very seriously any change that involves its team members, and as always, we will be thoughtful and transparent, and treat team members with respect,” said Sloan. “We have robust programs to make impacted team members aware of other job opportunities within Wells Fargo and provide support as they transition to the next phase of their careers. And even as we become more efficient, Wells Fargo will remain one of the largest employers in the United States.”

In the last two years, Wells Fargo has already made significant progress to become more customer-focused and efficient by:

Creating a simpler and more collaborative company by aligning like work into centers of excellence, standardizing processes and capabilities, and eliminating redundancies.

Investing for the future by prioritizing spending to improve the customer experience, delivering innovative products and services to customers, and strengthening its risk management and compliance capabilities.

Adding value for customers through its focus on innovation and customer-friendly services, such as zero-balance alerts and Overdraft RewindSM, which help customers avoid overdraft fees.

“We are addressing past issues, enhancing our focus on customers, strengthening risk management and controls, simplifying our organization, and improving the team member experience – all in the spirit of building a better Wells Fargo for our customers,” said Sloan.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 8,050 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 38 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2018 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

Cautionary Statement about Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements about our future business operations. Because forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding the future, they are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Do not unduly rely on forward-looking statements as actual results could differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we do not undertake to update them to reflect changes or events that occur after that date. For information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, refer to our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the “Forward-Looking Statements” discussion in Wells Fargo’s most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, as well as to Wells Fargo’s other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, available on its website at www.sec.gov.