It still has big challenges to overcome to compete on those fronts, from ending its losing streak to repaying its $967 million of federal aid. Synovus had said in October that it planned to cut $100 million more of expenses by 2012. It has already laid off 1,000 employees since 2008. Its portfolio of outstanding loans, which is heavily reliant on one-to-four-family properties and buyers and developers of land, shrank 14% from the year earlier in the third quarter. "The banking world is changed," Stelling said. "We needed to make this company more efficient and the staffing levels more appropriate for a banking organization of our size." The cutbacks will cost $28 million and touch every corner of its five-state territory. The bulk of the layoffs involve staff at 39 of its 322 branches slated for closure; it is also letting go of support staff at the corporate level and managers across the company. About 470 cuts will be made over the next 30 days and the remainder in the second quarter.