Australian banking giant Westpac on February 10 confirmed it will axe up to 550 jobs in order to protect its big profits, which are being hit by slowing global growth.

Gail Kelly, chief executive of the banking behemoth, which employs more than 30,000 people across its global operations, would not rule out further cuts.

"This is the largest announcement that we are likely to make this year," she told ABC radio.

"But we are in a changing world and it is really important for us to have a strong banking system.

"You can expect for us to have a lower number of employees at the end of the year than we had at the beginning."

Kelly said the sovereign debt woes in Europe continued to weigh on the bank, with higher funding costs and demand for lending slowing due to subdued global growth.

"You just have to look at what is happening in Europe to actually see that we are in for at least several years of much slower growth and that is impacting here in Australia as well.

"And from a banking point of view, higher levels of capital, higher levels of funding costs that actually come with this changed world, and of course changing consumer patterns."

"As banks we do need to adapt to this different world." Westpac in November unveiled a 10 percent jump in annual net profit to Aus$6.99 billion (US$7.21 billion) in the 12 months to September 30, but warned of a "softer" economic outlook.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) expressed outrage about the cuts.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012

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