Cutbacks, layoffs dog Chicago financial industry
Wachovia Corp. soon will begin laying off 58 workers at 77 W. Wacker Drive as the financial-services company's securities arm continues to integrate the recently acquired A.G. Edwards, a Wachovia spokeswoman said Thursday.Wachovia is the latest in a string of financial-services firms to cut back their Chicago-area employment.In February, GE Capital Corp. announced it was laying off 50 workers at 222 N. LaSalle St. as a result of its recent acquisition of Merrill Lynch Capital.
Similarly, Bank of America Corp. has said it plans to cut 2,500 jobs in Illinois in 2008 and 2009 in the wake of its purchase in October of LaSalle Bank, Chicago's No. 2 bank. In March, BofA alerted the state that 201 workers at a call center at 79 W. Monroe St. will lose their jobs starting in October.
In late February, Morgan Stanley Credit Corp., which originates prime mortgages, laid off 70 workers in Vernon Hills due to deterioration in the real estate market.The layoffs occurred at 75 N. Fairway Drive—the same location where, only a month earlier, Washington Mutual had cut 75 workers at a home-loan back-office operation.In March, JPMorgan Chase eliminated 59 jobs in a Westmont operation that handled subprime brokered mortgages. Chase isn't in that business anymore.
Last month in Schaumburg, First Franklin closed an office, idling 81 workers. That move came two months after its parent, Merrill Lynch, said it was discontinuing mortgage origination at First Franklin and exploring the sale of First Franklin's mortgage servicing unit.
LaSalle fallout:Harris Bank's commercial middle-market banking group has added more new clients through the first seven months of its fiscal year than it did during the entire previous year, Ray Whitacre, senior vice president of the group, said recently.New clients include Westside Mechanical, which banked at LaSalle until its recent purchase by BofA."We could see there were going to be big changes with the acquisition," Westside owner Jim Reiss said."When you think of business banking in Chicago, it's LaSalle, Harris or FifthThird," he said. "Harris came up with the best solution."Harris provided a $9 million credit facility, handles Westside's business banking and provided Reiss his acquisition financing to purchase Westside, which has about $45 million in annual sales. The Fifth Third banker who pitched Reiss now works for Harris. "Some attrition can be expected during a transition, but we're excited about the momentum we're building in Chicago," said Mark Sander, a BofA senior vice president who oversees the Midwest commercial and industrial banking unit, which has 10,000 customers. "We've been gaining local market share," adding more than $700 million in C&I loans since year's end.
byerak@tribune.com
Similarly, Bank of America Corp. has said it plans to cut 2,500 jobs in Illinois in 2008 and 2009 in the wake of its purchase in October of LaSalle Bank, Chicago's No. 2 bank. In March, BofA alerted the state that 201 workers at a call center at 79 W. Monroe St. will lose their jobs starting in October.
In late February, Morgan Stanley Credit Corp., which originates prime mortgages, laid off 70 workers in Vernon Hills due to deterioration in the real estate market.The layoffs occurred at 75 N. Fairway Drive—the same location where, only a month earlier, Washington Mutual had cut 75 workers at a home-loan back-office operation.In March, JPMorgan Chase eliminated 59 jobs in a Westmont operation that handled subprime brokered mortgages. Chase isn't in that business anymore.
Last month in Schaumburg, First Franklin closed an office, idling 81 workers. That move came two months after its parent, Merrill Lynch, said it was discontinuing mortgage origination at First Franklin and exploring the sale of First Franklin's mortgage servicing unit.
LaSalle fallout:Harris Bank's commercial middle-market banking group has added more new clients through the first seven months of its fiscal year than it did during the entire previous year, Ray Whitacre, senior vice president of the group, said recently.New clients include Westside Mechanical, which banked at LaSalle until its recent purchase by BofA."We could see there were going to be big changes with the acquisition," Westside owner Jim Reiss said."When you think of business banking in Chicago, it's LaSalle, Harris or FifthThird," he said. "Harris came up with the best solution."Harris provided a $9 million credit facility, handles Westside's business banking and provided Reiss his acquisition financing to purchase Westside, which has about $45 million in annual sales. The Fifth Third banker who pitched Reiss now works for Harris. "Some attrition can be expected during a transition, but we're excited about the momentum we're building in Chicago," said Mark Sander, a BofA senior vice president who oversees the Midwest commercial and industrial banking unit, which has 10,000 customers. "We've been gaining local market share," adding more than $700 million in C&I loans since year's end.
byerak@tribune.com
Labels: Bank of America, First Franklin Financial, JPMorganChase, Morgan Stanley, Wachovia, Wamu
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