ING plans to cut the rate paid to some secondment agencies by 20%, because of the impact of coronavirus on the bank, a spokesman has confirmed to the Financieele Dagblad.

‘We have to adapt our organisation to the current, uncertain situation,’ the spokesman said. ING uses agency staff for several key projects, including payment traffic, compliance and IT.

The bank has some 5,000 external hires and the cuts will affect 2,600 agency workers. Although the bank does not intend for the pay cut to be passed on to individuals, it admits it has no way of knowing if this is happening, the paper said.

Workers earning less than €65 an hour will not be affected, nor will the 500 to 600 self-employed people who work for the bank, the FD said.

The FD said the measure, which is temporary, will save tens of millions of euros.