PARIS: BNP Paribas said it will cut 640 jobs by end-2020 in its French retail bank under a voluntary redundancy plan, as part of a wider management reshuffle for a business grappling with low interest rates and stringent regulation.
French banks in general have been closing down retail branches and cutting staff, while investing more in the faster-growing online banking sector.
"The objective of this reorganisation is to reduce the number of decision-making chains and to concentrate decision-making powers closer to the needs of the customers," said a BNP Paribas spokesman on Thursday, following a report on the plan by French newspaper Le Monde.
Revenues at BNP Paribas' French retail banking networks fell 3 percent in 2016, and fell 1.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.
BNP Paribas said it was discussing the voluntary job cuts plan that would come via retirements with French trade unions. The French retail banking unit employed around 29,000 people in 2016, according to the bank's annual report.
The bank declined to comment on how many people would be impacted directly by the management revamp.
The presentation of the plan comes after the bank outlined its strategy during an investor day earlier this year.
BNP said then that it wanted to reduce its cost to income ratio - a key measure of profitability - in the retail bank business to 70 from 73 percent by 2020 through a "digital transformation, simplification of the organisation and streamlining of the branch networks".
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