Salt Lake City, Utah-based Zions Bancorporation, a financial holding company and the parent company of Zions Bank, has used its third-quarter (2019) earnings report to announce that it will reduce its workforce by 5%, affecting approximately 500 employees, approximately two-thirds of which will be administrative and support personnel and the remaining third of which will be customer-facing personnel. It is anticipated that this will also include employees at closed or relocated bank branches.
Harris H. Simmons, Chairman and CEO, commented, “Given the challenging interest rate environment in which banks currently operate, we’re pleased with the quarter’s overall results. We achieved solid growth of both demand and interest-bearing deposits, moderate loan growth, strong customer-related fee income growth, and flat operating expenses. As we adjust to a lower interest rate environment and anticipate the resulting continued pressure on interest margins, we will continue to take steps to carefully manage operating expenses in the year ahead. We are optimistic that we will be able to manage 2020 operating expenses to a level that is no more than, and likely modestly reduced from, expected 2019 results.”
“We're enhancing digital experiences for our customers with the goal of being quite competitive with the best providers of financial service products banks and nonbanks alike while remaining focused on continuous improvement and streamlining our processes, thereby keeping noninterest expense under control.”
“Over the long term, we'll remain focused on delivering positive operating leverage, although we recognize that this challenge will increase as our operating efficiency improves. As lower interest rates across the yield curve have materialized over the past several months, we've sharpened our focus on noninterest expenses. Today, we're announcing an acceleration of our drive toward improving operating efficiency, which will result in a near-term workforce reduction of about 5%, along with other operating expense reductions. We are absolutely committed to our branch footprint. We're relocating some branches, but we'll bring our total level of branches down by a very modest amount.”
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