ABN Amro to cut costs 20% in three years

Tuesday 19 May 2009

State-owned bank ABN Amro is to cut its overheads by 20% over three years, leading to the loss of up to 5,000 jobs, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Tuesday.

The jobs will go as part of the merger of ABN Amro and Fortis Nederland, saving up to €1.3bn, the paper quoted a spokesman as saying.

Earlier, banking unions claimed up to 6,500 jobs would go and that compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out.

The jobs will largely be lost at ABN Amro's headquarters and the bank branch network.

'The merger means there are a lot of jobs doubling up,' CEO Gerrit Zalm told news agency ANP. 'That is particularly the case in the retail network, where sometimes you see two branches in the same street.'

At the same time, Zalm expects to create 1,500 new jobs in the bank's corporate arm. Zalm plans to profile ABN Amro as a bank for businesses and wants to fill the gaps left after ABN Amro was divided up following its takeover in 2007, the FD says.

© DutchNews.nl

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