Northern Europe / Nordea / To cut as many as 940 more jobs

Nordea Bank CEO Christian Clausen signalled on Wednesday he still needs to cut as many as 940 more jobs at Scandinavia’s biggest lender to reach a goal of lowering headcount at least 10%.

“We have reduced our staff by 8%, we have come far,” Mr Clausen said in an interview, after the company said in a report fourth-quarter profit rose 7%. “From now on it’s more like becoming more efficient and thereby reducing staff where it’s possible. The number of manual transactions is going down. Our customers are using the internet.”

Mr Clausen said last month he needed to cut jobs to help the bank meet stricter regulatory requirements. Nordea, which is lagging behind its Swedish rivals Svenska Handelsbanken and Swedbank in boosting capital buffers, said it managed to increase profit last quarter even as demand for banking services was “constrained” by a tough economic climate.

Nordea plans to “reduce staff by about 2% to 3% more in the coming two to three years”, he said. “Distribution is changing because customers are changing behaviour.”

The number of full-time employees at the bank dropped to 31,466 in the fourth quarter from 33,068 a year earlier, according to the report. “We will continue to increase cost efficiency by approximately 3% annually in order to largely maintain flat costs going forward.”

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via Nordea plans more job cuts as profit grows 7% | Europe | BDlive.