Caixabank with its union spokesperson announced that they have agreed with unions to lay off 6,452 employees. And this will be the biggest ever staff overhaul in Spanish banking.
Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) union and the bank said that after the bank met some of the union’s demands, such as voluntary redundancies, the agreement to reduce its workforce in Spain by around 14.5% was reached. The union spokesperson also said that this deal was also made possible after improving financial compensation for those who leave the bank. In April, Caixabank had announced plans to cut 8,291 jobs, one of the largest such culls in Spain’s corporate history, and close 1,534 branches. This is slightly more than a quarter of its offices. These changes are mainly made towards getting adapted to online shifting of the customers due to this pandemic situation.
The acquisition of Bankia, is closed in March by Caixabank. And this is to become the country’s biggest domestic lender in terms of total assets. The layoffs would cost 1.9 billion euros as per the estimation. It also said the extraordinary gross charge would have a negative impact of 90 basis points in its reported core tier-1 capital. As of end of March and that costs and capital impact would be fully booked in the second quarter of 2021. The bank also said that it would reduce the number of affected branches to around 1,500. There are around 5,550 branches and 44,400 staff in the bank at Spain.
The agreement with the union is the key aspect of the Bankia deal. This is underpinned by annual cost savings of 770 million euros by 2023. Caixabank said that this agreement would save at least this amount. It also said that it would provide further details at the upcoming second quarter results presentation.
