Spanish banking giant Banco Santander is set to cut over 3,700 jobs across Spain as part of optimizing its operations following its acquisition of Banco Popular and subsequent integration.
Image: The façade of Banco Santander headquarters in Spain. Photo: courtesy of Dagane/Wikipedia.org.
As per certain unions, Santander will target closing of 1,150 branches, leading to job loses to nearly 11% of its workforce in the country.
The banking giant’s first quarter report stated that its Spanish operations had 32,366 employees working across 4,366 branches, as of the end of March 2019.
Spanish union Comisiones Obreras stated: “This reduction will mainly affect the commercial network and its intermediate support structures, although it will also affect the principal offices.
“For Comisiones, it is highly worrisome that such a high number of jobs is destroyed and our first objective will be to try to reduce the figures proposed by the bank.”
Last month, the banking giant said that it will target €1.2bn of incremental annual cost savings by enhancing its operational performance and capital allocation, and by leveraging opportunities for both scale and efficiency.
Santander said that it was expecting to generate additional cost savings of €250m in Spain through the integration of Banco Popular, reported Reuters.
Banco Popular, which was on the verge of collapse, was acquired by Santander for a nominal price of €1 in mid-2017 through an auction carried out by the Single Resolution Board and Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB).
Santander, through a global cost-cutting program, also intends to shutter 140 branches in the UK and cut 1,400 jobs in Poland, which marks an 11% reduction of its workforce in the region, reported Bloomberg.
During its annual general meeting held last month, the Spanish banking major disclosed plans to take 100% ownership in its Mexican subsidiary Santander Mexico via an exchange offer worth €2.56bn with minority shareholders. The banking giant currently has a stake of around 75% in the Mexican subsidiary.
In April, Santander revealed its plans to invest more than €20bn in the next four years in digital and technology to drive customer and revenue growth. Particularly, the banking giant is working on increasing its customer loyalty by improving and personalizing customer experiences while expanding several of its digital offerings.