Chiropractor in Wachovia, NJ

TRENTON — Wells Fargo will move its regional headquarters from downtown Trenton to the Carnegie Center in West Windsor later this year, a spokesman said today.

Wachovia, which was later acquired by Wells Fargo, moved its offices to the brand-new building on E. Front Street in 2006, becoming the first major corporate headquarters to relocate to the city in years. The move was heralded as an important piece in the effort to revitalize Trenton.

But the 46,000-square-foot office at 32 E. Front Street is now too large for Wells Fargo's needs, spokesman Kevin Friedlander said, and the company will relocate to an office half its size in the Carnegie Center office park in West Windsor, off Route 1. The will occur in the spring or early summer.

"Were only using about half the space in the Trenton building," Friedlander said.

The company signed a 10-year lease for the Trenton office building in 2006 but exercised an early termination option, he said.

"Once again, it’s just a space issue and we're always reviewing our business operations and looking for ways to make the most effective use of our properties so we can operate efficiently," Friedlander said.

About 60 back office and administrative employees work in the office, down from 125 who moved in in 2006. None of the four Wells Fargo branches in Trenton or the 40 branch employees will be affected by the move to West Windsor, Friedlander said.

"In no way will our customers feel any impact," he said.

Friedlander would not say whether Wells Fargo considered a smaller office building in Trenton. He said the company would remain active in the Trenton community and several nonprofits it supports.

"As far as we're concerned Trenton is still a great place to work and live and we're committed to the city of Trenton," he said.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

It’s been almost eight weeks since the NBA, NHL and MLB suspended their seasons because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Philadelphia, that means no Sixers games, no Flyers games and no Phillies games. So why are the parking lots at the Wells Fargo Center packed with cars?

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, there’s a simple explanation. They’re all rental cars owned by Enterprise.

Car rentals are down right now (as is air travel), which means agencies are struggling to find places to park their cars. So that’s leading some companies to explore off-airport options, such as the Wells Fargo Center.

Phil Weinberg, executive vice president and general counsel for Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Wells Fargo Center, said Enterprise is a corporate partner of the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, and it is the only company with rental vehicles parked at the stadium. “They approached us shortly after the stay-at-home orders became effective and asked if we could assist them in parking their cars, which are clearly not in service right now,” he said.

According to the Inquirer, the Wells Fargo Center is letting Enterprise park more than 2,000 vehicles free of charge, with no fixed end date in sight.

The Wells Fargo Center isn’t the only sports venue in the country housing overflow rental vehicles. According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Aloha Stadium has up to 1,500 rental cars from five companies parked in its lots. And in Southern California, thousands of rental cars fill the parking lots at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Angel Stadium in Anaheim, according to the Southern California News Group.

Pennsylvania ranks sixth among U.S. states with more than 52,000 cases of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. However the Philadelphia sports teams draw part of their fan base from South Jersey, and the Garden State is home to more than 128,000 COVID-19 cases, with the northern part of the state taking the biggest hit.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether it’s a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Sixers owner Josh Harris already owns one arena in New Jersey. Why not another one? Here's how it would happen.

Get a compelling long read and must-have lifestyle tips in your inbox every Sunday morning — great with coffee!

I don’t really know what to think of the Wells Fargo Center. For example, the original first sentence of this story was, “The Wells Fargo Center sucks.”

So I guess I’m leaning that way. I don’t hate it though. I’ve attended hundreds of events there. Mostly the Sixers — but also the Flyers, concerts, WWE wrestling, arena football, the Harlem Globetrotters, summer merchandise clearance sales, sneaker conventions, plus a summer interning at Comcast SportsNet’s website (where, one night at work, I watched a Britney Spears concert from the hockey press box).

There’s just nothing it does great. I’ve been attempting to come up with my favorite thing about it and the best one I can think of is, “The concourses are wider than they were at the Spectrum.” This narrowly beat out “the roast beef sandwich at the old brewpub, if they still serve them.” It doesn’t have a sense of place. It’s been named for four different banks. It’s kind of bland. It’s just at the top of a parking lot hill surrounded by fence and a highway.

The Sixers don’t like the Wells Fargo Center either, maybe for some of the same reasons I don’t. The main problem the Sixers have, though, is they don’t own the arena. Comcast Spectacor does. That means less income for the owners, which means the team is less valuable. The Sixers, then, don’t get any money from the Wells Fargo Center naming rights. As such, the Sixers have stopped referring to the Wells Fargo Center as the Wells Fargo Center.

CEO Scott O’Neil called it the arena that we play in on Twitter. “The particular bank referenced is currently not a sponsor of the Philadelphia 76ers,” a Sixers spokesperson told Biz Philly yesterday.

Maybe this is simply a ploy to get Wells Fargo to sign a favorable deal with the Sixers. Or maybe the Sixers brass just enjoy looking like babies to many fans. But I think it’s a reminder: It’s conceivable the Sixers could move to New Jersey. When Sixers owner Josh Harris bought the Devils (and their Newark arena, the Prudential Center) almost two years ago, some fans panicked. After all, Harris said the arena was more valuable than the Devils in his purchase. What if he moved the Sixers there?

At the time, though, Delaware County Daily Times columnist Jack McCaffery wrote of a plan that would maximize Harris’ value even more:

Harris knows he cannot threaten a Sixers move to Newark. The Nets and Knicks have rights to that market, the NBA would seltzer-bottle him if he tried to move a team into it, and Philadelphia is too deep a basketball city to leave it free of a basketball team. There will be no threat of the Sixers moving north. None. East, though, is always in play.

If New Jersey executes the play correctly, it could have two big-league arenas, one on either pole of the state, one for hockey, one for hoops, both for circuses and concerts, all with the ability to lure promoters with a two-for-one special. It could take years. But, again, the play is just setting up.

In this scenario, the Sixers would move to Camden. That’s where they almost moved when this exact situation played out in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Sixers played in a somewhat-aging arena they didn’t own. Owner Harold Katz had “the worst lease in sports.” The Sixers’ current straits aren’t so dire (the arena was built in 1996) but there are similarities.

Katz first tried a move to Jersey in the late 1980s. He negotiated to build a new arena in Camden with outgoing Gov. Jim Florio in 1993, but Gov.-elect Christine Whitman announced the next year she was rejecting the deal. Katz and his backers tried to salvage the deal with private funding, but he eventually agreed to stay in Philadelphia. What was originally called Spectrum II became the Corestates Center then the First Union Center, then the Wachovia Center and now Wells Fargo. It was largely financed privately (it did have $20 million in state funding and a small low-cost loan from the city). Ed Snider sold a majority share of Spectacor to Comcast in 1996, and the renamed Comcast Spectacor bought the Sixers.

What if the Sixers make noises about a new arena again? Not having a deal with the sponsor of your arena is not a problem you have if your own the arena. You can see how state funding for such a move would be pushed in Jersey: The state is already throwing money at companies to relocate to Camden — including the Sixers, who have a practice facility planned for the waterfront. A basketball arena would be the centerpiece of an entertainment district that already includes a minor-league baseball stadium, an aquarium and a summer concert venue. This would bring a real surefire attraction to the Camden waterfront for 41 nights a year. (Well, if the Sixers eventually get good.) These arguments might not make financial sense — public sports stadium funding is generally wasteful — but think of the civic pride! And so on.

If Pennsylvania and Philadelphia were to attempt to keep the team, they would be met with resistance on spending public money. That will happen in New Jersey, too, but maybe there will be less resistance there. Maybe the Sixers will end up actually moving to Camden after all. If so, the team would need to make one change: Dribblin’ Ben Franklin becomes a Dribblin’ Walt Whitman mascot. Or maybe Nipper could be looking into a basketball hoop? Eh, maybe not. We’d have some time to figure it out, at least.

LIVINGSTON MANOR — Andrew Krieger, who revamped much of this northern Sullivan County hamlet and was hailed as a hero in 2005 for helping tsunami victims in India, apparently has hit the skids.

Four of Krieger's nine buildings on Main Street are in foreclosure.

Wachovia bank has commenced three court actions against the former Wall Street mogul, his wife, Valerie, and their corporation, Livingston Manor Development Corp., alleging failure to pay several mortgages.

He owes the bank close to $900,000, court papers say.

The affected buildings are 34 Main (Hamish & Henry Booksellers), 39 Main (Dr. Livingston's Wine & Spirits), 43 Main (Medicap Pharmacy) and 66 Main (adcStudio Graphic Design). The buildings also house several apartments.

Judge Mark Meddaugh in December placed the properties into receivership and appointed attorney Michael Davidoff to collect the rents and pay the bank the proceeds during the foreclosure.

"There hasn't been any final determination," Davidoff said.

County treasurer's records indicate Krieger, in spite of receiving partial tax exemptions for past building improvements, owes taxes from 2008 on the four buildings and vacant land on Old Route 17.

Krieger, a millionaire currency trader, has been much in the news. Aside from buying up the majority of Manor's Main Street, he also announced, and never fulfilled, plans for an $80 million resort hotel/spa and hundreds of homes on 500 acres around the Manor.

In 2005, he bankrolled a well-documented relief effort in India, where he sent medicine, bottled water and supplies to tsunami victims.

And he got some unwanted press later that year, when he reached a deal with prosecutors in New Jersey, agreeing to pay $2.75 million for illegally cutting down 600 trees on public parkland next to his former Alpine, N.J., estate.

Krieger, who owns a home in Livingston Manor, has been in Dubai, said Sims Foster, who manages several Krieger properties and businesses on Main Street.

Foster said the foreclosures say more about the financial struggles of Wachovia bank, which called in the loans, than they do about Krieger's finances. He said his boss plans to keep the buildings.

"Andy is as committed to Livingston Manor and Sullivan County as he always was," Foster said. "I would expect this to be resolved in very short order."

vwhitman@th-record.com

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (September 14, 2012) – TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, has promoted Robert Greene to Senior Vice President, New Jersey Team Leader in Healthcare Financial Services. Based in Piscataway, N.J., he is responsible for sales and relationship management for all of the bank’s New Jersey healthcare clients.

Greene has almost 30 years of experience in banking and healthcare lending. He joined TD Bank in 1999 and most recently served as a Senior Healthcare Lender. Prior to joining TD Bank, he served in similar roles at Summit Bank and Wachovia Bank. Greene is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

A resident of East Brunswick, N.J., Greene received an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University and an undergraduate degree from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa. He is a native of Kendall Park, N.J. and graduated from St. Peter’s High School in New Brunswick in 1979.

About TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank^®

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing nearly 8 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at more than 1,299 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries offer customized private banking and wealth management services through TD Wealth^®, and vehicle financing and dealer commercial services through TD Auto Finance. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Portland, Maine. To learn more, visit www.tdbank.com. Find TD Bank on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TDMoneyLoungeUS and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TDBank_US.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America. The Toronto-Dominion Bank is one of the few banks in the world rated Aaa by Moody's and trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD." To learn more, visit www.td.com.

# # #

Here is more information about TD Bank

NOTE: Wolfe News Wire is an online source for news and information about noteworthy companies and organizations. We invite you to share this content and/or leave a comment. Background info and past news items from a specific organization can be found by clicking the side logos. For more info, please email info@wolfenews.com. Thank you!

©2015 Wolfe Public Relations. All Rights Reserved.

Wells Fargo offers three standard certificate of deposit (CD) terms: three months, six months and 12 months. The bank also has two special CDs available with seven- or 11-month terms. Rates on most of the CDs are meager compared to online banks and credit unions but are typical for traditional brick-and-mortar banks.

Here’s an overview of Wells Fargo’s standard CD rates. Rates are accurate as of November 16, 2023.

Each Wells Fargo CD comes with a slightly higher “relationship rate” if your account is linked to a Wells Fargo Prime Checking, Premier Checking or Private Bank Interest Checking account. Some CDs also earn a higher APY if your balance is at least $100,000.

Overview of Wells Fargo CDs

Wells Fargo standard CDs require a minimum opening balance of $2,500, while you need $5,000 to open a special seven- or 11-month CD. Wells Fargo compounds interest daily and pays it monthly, although you can choose interest to be paid quarterly, semiannually, annually or at maturity.

If you take your money out of your Wells Fargo CD prior to the end of the agreed-upon term, you will be subject to an early withdrawal penalty. For CD terms between three and 12 months, this early withdrawal penalty amounts to three months’ worth of interest.

Wells Fargo offers only fixed-rate CDs, unlike some banks that provide a wider variety of types of CDs.

As with most CDs offered by banks, you’ll benefit from FDIC insurance and the safety of fixed rates, but many Wells Fargo APYs are nowhere near the best CD rates.

How Much Can You Earn With Wells Fargo’s CD Rates?

Find out how much you can earn with a Wells Fargo CD using our CD calculator:

How Wells Fargo’s CDs Compare

Many banks and credit unions offer significantly higher rates than Wells Fargo.

Some Wells Fargo CDs also are lower than the national average CD rates, according to the FDIC.

As always, it pays to shop around for the best CD rates. Don’t assume that your bank or local banks have the best APYs. To get the best CD rates, do your research and compare CD rates across several banks and credit unions to get the highest possible return on your investment.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is one of the largest national banks in America, with more than 5,200 bank branches and over 13,000 ATMs. It’s a full-service bank offering several checking and savings products and many other banking solutions for individuals and businesses.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

For Immediate Release January 20, 2011 Contact: Jennifer Morneau, TD Bank (207) 761-8762 Web Site: http://www.tdbank.com/

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (January 20, 2011) – TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, has named Michael P. Mattera as Vice President – Commercial Loan Officer in Commercial Lending in Cherry Hill, N.J. He is responsible for providing financing and cash management solutions for business clients throughout Camden and Burlington counties in southern New Jersey.

Mattera has 10 years of experience in commercial banking. Prior to joining , he served as a commercial lender at Sun National Bank in Mount Laurel, N.J. and Wachovia Bank in Media, Pa.

A Philadelphia resident, Mattera is a member of the Burlington County Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Commerce of South Jersey, the South Jersey Bankers Association and the Risk Management Association. He is a 2000 magna cum laude graduate of Temple University.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is one of the 10 largest banks in the United States, providing customers with a full range of financial products and services at more than 1,250 convenient locations from Maine to Florida. On September 30, 2010, The South Financial Group, Inc. was acquired by TD Bank Group, and its subsidiary Carolina First Bank merged with TD Bank. Carolina First Bank will continue to operate under the trade names Carolina First Bank in North and South Carolina and Mercantile Bank in Florida until conversion and rebranding in 2011. TD Bank is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J., and Portland, Maine. Carolina First Bank and Mercantile Bank are trade names of TD Bank, N.A. For more information, visit www.tdbank.com.

TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank, is a member of TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Canada, a top 10 financial services company in North America and one of the few banks in the world rated Aaa by Moody's. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD." To learn more, visit www.td.com.

Here is more information about TD Bank

NOTE: Wolfe News Wire is an online source for news and information about noteworthy companies and organizations. We invite you to share this content and/or leave a comment. Background info and past news items from a specific organization can be found by clicking the side logos. For more info, please email info@wolfenews.com. Thank you!

©2015 Wolfe Public Relations. All Rights Reserved.

Justice can sometimes be swift, even at a bureaucracy-heavy wirehouse.

Just seven days after Morgan Stanley last month began probing charges that a broker in its Ridgewood, NJ, branch had shifted money out of a client’s household account for his apparent benefit, the broker was discharged. His long-time Morgan Stanley branch manager is on indefinite administrative leave.

“It means that they found a lot of bad stuff pretty quickly,” said Patrick Dennis, founding principal of compliance firm Oyster Consulting in Glen Allen, Va., who has served in senior legal posts at Banc One Securities and Wachovia Securities and is not involved in the Morgan Stanley case.

Barry Connell, the broker, made “unauthorized withdrawals and transfers of funds from client’s household accounts to third-party payees, which appear to be for the benefit of the former registered representative,” Morgan Stanley wrote in its U5 termination form it filed with regulators.

A Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined to comment.

Connell, who was born in 1966 and has worked for 16 years as a broker at Morgan Stanley and UBS Financial Services, according to the filing, could not be reached for comment. One person familiar with the incident said authorities have not been able to locate him, and another said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved. A spokeswoman at the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, which oversees the state securities bureau, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Prior to Connell’s dismissal on November 10, his history of customer and employer complaints was relatively sparse. In 2012 he settled a $700,000 claim for unauthorized trading by a customer for $55,000 and four years earlier, while working at Morgan Stanley’s nearby office in Pearl River, NY, agreed to a $20,000 settlement on a $29,274 customer claim that alleged failure to sell Wachovia Corp. stock in a timely manner, according to the regulatory filing.

The facts are less direct about Jeffrey Crystal, the branch manager who is on leave. One person who has spoken with Crystal and who spoke on condition of anonymity said the manager had flagged Connell’s unexplained long absences to compliance and other officials last summer as well as issues involving an unlimited power of attorney that Connell wrested from the elderly client.

Crystal did not respond to messages left at his home and office, but a person answering his work phone last week confirmed he was on leave, as did several well-placed sources.

Crystal manages more than 40 brokers apiece at offices in Ridgewood and Paramus, NJ, and has been a Morgan Stanley manager since 2001, according to company web pages.

“While Jeffrey has a variety of responsibilities he finds the most fulfilling part of his position to be introducing Financial Advisors to all the opportunities to serve clients that are available at Morgan Stanley,” his webpage biography says. “His goal is to nurture and promote a culture of teamwork and growth.”

Lawyers, recruiters and veteran brokers warned against rushing to judgment on Crystal’s suspension. “It could be any number of things, from failure to do a good job at supervision to overlooking or, in the extreme, being complicit” in the alleged illegal activities, said Dennis.

The only certainty is that Finra is asking a lot of questions as it does whenever someone is dismissed for cause, he said.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in Fairfield, NJ, in 1997, Crystal did several stints at Merrill Lynch and also worked at Oppenheimer & Co. and Chase Investment Services, according to his BrokerCheck history. He began his brokerage career in 1992 at Lehman Brothers.

Los Angeles, CA: Two wrongful termination lawsuits recently filed in New Jersey have a kinship with earlier legal troubles faced by banking giant Wells Fargo in California over accusations the financial juggernaut forced its bank employees to create in excess of two million bogus credit card and deposit accounts in the names of existing clients without authorization.

The allegations led to a $185 million settlement with the City Attorney’s Office of Los Angeles, together with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

In December Wells Fargo was hit with a proposed class action lawsuit in federal court in California brought by current and former employees of the bank who allege retaliation for refusing to participate in the alleged scam (Kevin Hogan v. Wells Fargo Bank & Company, Case No. 4:16-cv-07360, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California).

The New Jersey wrongful termination lawsuits allege similar retaliation to that alleged by the California plaintiffs. According to court documents, New Jersey plaintiffs Gayle Piper and Darlene Day each filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Wells Fargo after they reported what their lawsuits characterize as “troubling practices” involving the establishment of allegedly bogus accounts opened in the names of bank clients without their consent.

Both women enjoyed long tenures in the banking industry, and both became employees of Wells Fargo when the latter acquired Wachovia Bank, for which both plaintiffs worked.

The two plaintiffs were employed at different Wells Fargo branches in New Jersey but both allege similar claims. Their respective bank managers would compel them, it is alleged, to open savings accounts for bank clients to whom the plaintiffs were not acquainted, or for customers who had only requested checking accounts, rather than the savings accounts the plaintiffs were compelled to open.

When the two plaintiffs refused to engage in such activity and reported the incidents to upper management, they allege retaliation by Wells Fargo. Piper, in court documents, claims she reported the alleged misconduct to her supervisor, the district manager, a Wells Fargo investigator and the company's ethics hotline. Day made similar overtures in an effort to compel Wells Fargo to stop the practices.

Shortly after Piper reported her findings, she was issued three written warnings and then let go from her job. Day was also issued three warnings, with the third warnings making it clear “that her termination was imminent.” Day, in her wrongful termination lawsuit, indicates she retired from her position shortly after receiving the third warning letter from Wells Fargo.

Piper had 40 years of service in the banking sector: Day, 25. Their stories are similar to those filing lawsuits with their wrongful termination lawyer in California.

The New Jersey cases are Gayle Piper v. Wells Fargo & Co. et al. and Darlene Day v. Wells Fargo & Co. et al., Case Nos. L-3516-17 and L-3517-17, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, County of Middlesex.

Retail closures are hardly an unusual sight these days. Whether it's major grocery stores or home decor chains, companies have been shuttering stores left and right over the past few years. But it's not only retailers paring down—major banks have also been reducing their brick-and-mortar locations. Wells Fargo has already closed hundreds of branches nationwide, and now it has more closures slated for the coming weeks. Read on to discover more about Wells Fargo's plans.

Over the last few years, Wells Fargo has been getting rid of hundreds of branches. In 2021, the company closed the most locations out of any other bank, with a total of 267 cut that year, CNBC reported. Wells Fargo shuttered many more branches last year, leaving the company with 4,598 retail locations at the end of 2022, down from 4,777 branches the year prior.

Customers have continued to see more closures from the bank this year, as well. Wells Fargo has already closed branches in Montana, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Jersey, Florida, Utah, Virginia, New Mexico, and Washington.

Now, even more branches are on the chopping block.

Wells Fargo's next closure is just around the corner. The company is closing a location in Redondo Beach, California, tomorrow, The U.S. Sun reported. The Wells Fargo on South Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach will close for good on Sept. 13 at 11 a.m.

"Until then, customers can use the branch and bank with us as they always have," a Wells Fargo spokesperson told The U.S. Sun. "After that, customers can use our branch at 1701 S. Elena Ave. which is 1.5 miles away from the closing branch."

Customers in California aren't alone: Wells Fargo is also closing a branch in Richmond, Virginia, tomorrow, Richmond BizSense reported. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to the news outlet that its outpost at 3501 West Broad Street will shut down for good on Sept. 13 as well.

This branch's operations and deposits are being consolidated into the Willow Lawn Wells Fargo—which is located on the same road, about one mile west at 4901 West Broad Street.

Wells Fargo is planning to close two more branches in the Richmond area in the coming weeks, Richmond BizSense reported. The company is shutting down a branch located at 8215 West Broad Street on Oct. 18, and another at 122 East Grace Street on Nov. 1, according to the news outlet.

Outside of Virginia, Wells Fargo will be letting go of a branch in Pennsylvania. Its outpost at 1840 Airport Road in Allentown, Pennsylvania, will close for good on Nov. 1, WFMZ-TV reported.

And before that, Wells Fargo will be shutting down two branches in New Mexico. Spokesperson Ruben Pulido recently confirmed to the Albuquerque Business Journal that the bank is planning to close retail locations in Bosque Farms and Santa Teresa on Oct. 4.

Best Life reached out to Wells Fargo about these new planned closures, and we will update this story with their response.

Wells Fargo's decision to close so many branches nationwide has not been an easy one or something they "take lightly," the company told The U.S. Sun. But as consumer banking habits change, operations must change with it.

"Customers use our wide range of digital capabilities for many of their banking needs and, as a result, more transactions are happening outside the branch," a Wells Fargo spokesperson previously told Best Life. "As such, we continuously evaluate our branch network in light of changing customer needs, the increase in the use of digital banking, and market factors."

Nevertheless, "branches continue to play an important role in the way we serve our customers," the spokesperson added.

This is not just a problem for Wells Fargo. Many major banking companies, including Santander Bank, have been closing branches across the U.S. in light of changing trends.

"Like many industries, our customers' preferences have changed, with more customers choosing to bank with us online," Santander Bank said in a previous statement to Best Life. "Therefore, we are reimagining the customer and employee experience by simplifying our processes, refining our branch footprint, and increasing our investment in digital capabilities to align with the evolving needs of our customers."