Rabobank to cut 1,200 jobs at Dutch headquarters

Dutch lender Rabobank said on Wednesday it plans to cut more than 1,200 jobs in areas such as IT at its head office, seeking cost-savings of 219 million euros ($312 million) over the next two years. Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are set to announce thousands of fresh job cuts as they face falling trading volumes and rising costs, a Swiss newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Unlike its main Dutch rivals ABN Amro and ING Group, Rabobank did not need state aid during the 2008 credit crisis, did not make a loss during that period, and is one of the few banks with a triple A credit rating. But Rabobank, which employs about 59,000 people world-wide, said it wanted to improve efficiency at its Utrecht headquarters, which has been extended with a new complex in the centre of the university town.
The Rabobank job cuts were not related to falling sales or economic uncertainty, said Manel Vrijenhoek, a spokeswoman for the bank. "We have to watch our efficiencies. On a long-term basis and in view of our competitive position, are we still working as efficiently as possible? This is a normal review," she said. No job cuts were planned at Rabobank International, the bank's wholesale banking and international retail banking division, and no efficiency review was scheduled for that part of the bank's business, Vrijenhoek said. "The business activities are mainly done by the local branches. This addresses purely the head office which supports the local branches," she said.
Rabobank plans to cut 376, or 6 percent, out of a total of 6,400 permanent jobs at its headquarters and about 850 contract positions will be cut in 2012 and 2013, mainly through attrition although lay-offs are possible, she said. A "considerable" number of the job cuts will be in IT positions, but the bank declined to give more details saying the matter still needed to be discussed internally with employee groups.