American banking major Wells Fargo has decided to close its Chennai office and consolidate its India operations into just two core locations – Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

The financial services major’s offices in India are located in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad currently and the company plans to gradually phase out its Chennai office by end of 2027.

Sources told businessline that Wells Fargo employees in Chennai were briefed earlier this week about the closure of Chennai office in phases going up to end of 2027, by which time all employees will be required to move to either Bengaluru or Hyderabad.

While no specific reasons were given, this was attributed to the company’s “India location strategy.” Employees businessline spoke to conveyed dilemma as to their next steps.

The employees were informed by their teams that this is in line with overall enterprise location strategy and was done to “provide more robust career growth opportunities” and serve customers better. “We expect most Chennai employees to have the opportunity to relocate to either Bengaluru or Hyderabad,” an internal communicated added. India and the Philippines continue to be important locations for company’s global delivery strategy, it said.

Wells Fargo’s global delivery operations include substantial presence in India and Philippines. The operations in India span business operations, corporate functions, and technology teams, who support Wells Fargo’s various lines of business.

This comes at a time when Chennai has gained reputation as a hub for GCCs in the banking and financial services space. Standard Chartered, Barclays, Mizuho, and BNY Mellon are among large financial services GCCs already present here.

As per industry sources, Wells Fargo has around 10,000 employees across Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru with Chennai being the smallest office of the three sites. The number of employees in Chennai could not be ascertained but is expected to be in thousands of employees.

Businessline’s queries to Wells Fargo remained unanswered at the time of writing.

Published on May 7, 2025

Crude oil futures traded higher on Wednesday morning following reports that officials from the US and China will meet this week to discuss trade tariff-related issues.

At 9.53 am on Wednesday, July Brent oil futures were at $62.67, up by 0.84 per cent, and June crude oil futures on WTI (West Texas Intermediate) were at $59.67, up by 0.98 per cent.

May crude oil futures were trading at ₹5049 on Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) during the initial hour of trading on Wednesday against the previous close of ₹5011, up by 0.76 per cent, and June futures were trading at ₹5039 against the previous close of ₹5006, up by 0.66 per cent.

Reports said that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will meet their Chinese counterparts for talks on tariff related issues in Switzerland this week. The US and China are major consumers of crude oil in the global market, and the recent developments related to trade tariffs have impacted the price of the commodity.

In their Commodities Feed for Wednesday, Warren Patterson, Head of Commodities Strategy of ING Think, and Ewa Manthey, Commodities Strategist, said news that the US and China will start trade talks this weekend has Brent crude trading higher, extending a relief rally in oil yesterday. Talks would be a sign of potential de-escalation in trade tensions. “Yet while negotiations would help improve sentiment in the oil market, we’ll need to see significant progress on lowering tariffs to improve the demand outlook,” they said.

The Commodities Feed said that the supply side looks increasingly more comfortable due to the aggressive supply hikes from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+. This is particularly so toward the latter part of the year, when the oil surplus is expected to grow. Clearly, the risk to this view is OPEC+ reversing policy once again.

“We’d have to see members who’ve consistently produced at above target levels start adhering to their targets. Kazakhstan is reportedly considering its options to meet targets. Our oil balance assumes OPEC+ continues with aggressive supply hikes through the third quarter, in line with increases announced for May and June,” the Feed said.

Meanwhile, the industry data showed a decline in crude oil inventory levels in the US for the week ending May 2. According to the industry body American Petroleum Institute (API), crude oil inventories in the US declined by 4.49 million barrels for the week ending May 2. Market was expecting it to decline by 2.5 million barrels during the period.

May natural gas futures were trading at ₹301.80 on MCX during the initial hour of trading on Wednesday against the previous close of ₹292.10, up by 3.32 per cent.

On the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), May jeera contracts were trading at ₹21325 in the initial hour of trading on Wednesday against the previous close of ₹21565, down by 1.11 per cent.

May dhaniya futures were trading at ₹7336 on NCDEX in the initial hour of trading on Wednesday against the previous close of ₹7386, down by 0.68 per cent.

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Published on May 7, 2025