The Volksbank group, which includes SNS, ASN Bank and Regiobank, is cutting its workforce by 400 to 500 jobs over the coming three years.

The aim is to boost efficiency and digitalisation and to work more quickly, the bank, which has a current workforce of 3,000, said.

‘With the new strategy, we strengthen the relationship with our customers by always being close and personal, so that we meet their needs even better,’ bank chairman Martijn Gribnau said in a statement.

Volksbank booked net profit of €174m last year, down 37% on 2019. However, Gribnau said, given the ‘difficult circumstances, I am happy with the the results.’

Volksbank is the second Dutch bank this week to announce job losses. On Wednesday, Rabobank said it would cut its workforce by 5,000 over five years.

ING figures

ING also announced its 2020 earnings figures on Friday, saying net profit halved to €2.5bn.

In particular, the pandemic and the lockdown had reduced demand for corporate loans, the bank said. Demand for mortgages remained high.

Of the rest of the big three Dutch banks, Rabobank made net profit of over €1bn last year, but this was down around 50% on 2019. On Wednesday, ABN Amro said it had posted a full year loss of €45m.