Leading Dutch bank ABN Amro announced job cuts numbering in the thousands this Tuesday in a continued effort to focus on private banking.
CEO Marguerite Bérard, who took up the position this past April, spelled out the bank’s plans to reduce costs and increase its profits in an announcement by the bank earlier this morning, RTL Nieuws reports.
How many jobs are we talking about?
The company aims to slash 5,200 full-time positions by the year 2028. As of this year, 1,000 jobs have already been cut.
The remaining 4,200 jobs will be reduced in the coming years. Many positions simply won’t be re-filled as contracts expire.
Using 2024 as a benchmark year, at which point the company had around 22,000 employees, the cuts amount to nearly a quarter of ABN’s workforce.
Acquisitions and aspirations
In some ways, the announcement is not a surprise.
Thanks to a reduction in Dutch government stakes in the company, ABN Amro has been seen flexing its increased autonomy to maximise power on an international scale.
The acquisition of NIBC and German bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe by ABN Amro are recent indicators of the bank’s goal to increase their competitiveness in Northwestern Europe.
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ABN Amro has also sold their personal-loan focused subsidiary, Alfam, to Rabobank.
In other words, they are separating themselves from their previous work with consumers and smaller businesses in favour of big, wealthy individuals outside the Netherlands. Let the other banks deal with the little guy, right?
What now?
While those employees losing their jobs are being offered financial support and aid in finding employment, there’s no doubt that a change this big will ruffle some feathers.
Aside from the moral quandary of a Dutch company redirecting its interests in such a drastic way, job cuts might be due to AI streamlining.
In their press release, ABN Amro described “optimisation” through the integration of AI.
The world is changing, and ABN Amro is moving right along with it.
What are your thoughts on the job cuts? Let us know in the comments below!
