NAB Cuts 350 Jobs at its UK Unit. Banking Industry Fears More Cuts at Home

Post by NeilMc on November 17, 2008 · Under Business News, Company News, banking, news · Comment

The National Australia Bank, announced job cuts in its British unit with around 350 employees being affected with the announcement of a strategic partnership between French Insurer AXA and NAB’s UK unit Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks.

The agreement means that Axa will provide new investment and insurance products to the banks 2.3 million retail customers. The deal means that roughly GBP 1.2 billion (AS 2.75 billion) of funds under administration will be transferred to a new entity.

An NAB spokesperson said that abou 129 jobs will also be transferred whilst a further 79 jobs would be cut. The bank said it would try to redeploy affected staff. The spokesman said the staff reductions followed the completion of a 12-month review of the wealth business, and were not the result of the global economic slowdown.

NAB’s announcement followed after it was revealed that Royal Bank of Scotland was planning to cut 3000 jobs from its global banking and markets workforce in the coming weeks.
Other major British companies announced job-shedding plans last week, with unions saying they believed 20,000 jobs had been slashed in the past five days alone as unemployment heads towards a predicted figure of 2 million within a few months.

KPMG warned earlier in the year, that 10,000 Australian jobs could go from the nation’s five main banks over the next year, as lending growth slows and provisions mount due to the credit crunch.
The Australian reported last month that ANZ would cut more deeply into its workforce than previously thought, with a reduction in management layers from 12 to seven likely to yield a headcount reduction of well over 1000 — more than double the anticipated figure.

Since then, conditions have only worsened and on Friday, Fairfax Newspaper went even further and said that an unnamed ANZ source, told them that up to 3,500 jobs could go before Christmas.

CBA Chief Ralph Norris said at the Annual General Meeting that the current environment was the worst it has ever been since the Great Depression. CBA is also believed to be preparing to cut lots of jobs, some say in the hundreds, as part of a cost cutting strategy.The Westpac/St George merger could result in the loss of 2000 jobs.

Deep cuts are expected in the investment banking, Australia’s largest full service Investment Bank, Macquarie Group is putting 600 property and real estate bankers on notice that positions will be slashed across that division.

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