Unicredit has joined the long list of major banking institutions around the world revealing plans to dismiss employees. The bank holds a strong presence with 12,000 branches found in more than 50 countries, and it remains Italy’s largest bank servicing an estimated 26 million customers globally. Unicredit revealed yesterday in its business plan to span the next 3 years that it would be closing 500 branches and dismissing 8,000 employees, in order to minimise gross expenses by around €1 billion. As the cuts equate to nearly 10% of its staff, the bank is planning to spend over €9 billion to make improvements and advancements in areas such as technology, human resources and compliance.
European banks have announced more than 63,000 employee dismissals, which is 10 times higher than the figure released by North American banks. Europe has seen many other banks head down a similar road to UniCredit with; Santander terminating over 5,000 jobs, Barclays terminating over 3,000 jobs and HSBC terminating 4,000 jobs. Deutsche Bank has decided to compress its interests in investment banking, with plans to cut 18,000 jobs over the next 3 years. In Germany, employees are not the only ones affected as banks are pressing negative interest rates onto their customers.
Bloomberg have reported that 75,700 banking jobs have been cut this year alone, with over 80% of these banks situated in Europe. Analysts believe that the banks are compelled to minimise costs as the financial environment is hostile due to negative interest rates and lagging economies.