Wells Fargo to limit hours nationwide amid coronavirus pandemic, closing some branches
Wells Fargo is limiting branch hours nationwide, closing some locations and switching others to drive through-only, as the nation’s largest bank branch network attempts to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
Wells branches will now be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the bank said in a press release. Some branches will be temporarily closed and others will be limited to drive-thru only service, bank spokeswoman Beth Richek said Tuesday.
Branches all over the Charlotte area were closed as of Tuesday, including the uptown branch in Three Wells Fargo Center. The bank said that some employees were being moved from closed branches to busier ones, and that it is enhancing its social distance measures. Richek declined to say how many branches were temporarily closed.
Wells is encouraging customers to use the bank’s branch locator tool to see if their local branch is open.
The move comes after Bank of America similarly restricted branch hours last week. Truist, which still operates its branches under the names BB&T and SunTrust, closed some branches earlier this month, and is limiting access to branch lobbies.
Banks have been attempting to balance the needs of the millions of Americans who lost their jobs this month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the safety of the hundreds of thousands of bank tellers across the country.
With most banks offering assistance to those affected by the coronavirus and corresponding economic shutdown, whether on customers’ mortgages or credit card bills, banks and their call centers are swarmed with out-of-work customers facing upcoming bills. Bank of America said last week that it had added 1,000 new people to its consumer and small business banking group in March to help customers.
Wells Fargo announced on Monday that it would pay employees that it deemed “front line” $200 more every other week, provided they made less than $100,000 a year. The bank has also pledged $175 million in donations to help communities handle and recover from the pandemic.
A legacy of the bank’s 2008 purchase of Wachovia, Wells Fargo has 27,000 workers in the Charlotte area, the most of any city it operates in.
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 12:57 PM with the headline "Wells Fargo to limit hours nationwide amid coronavirus pandemic, closing some branches."