As a consequence of the need to reduce costs, 400 positions are discontinued. As it has not been possible to find other positions in the bank for all affected employees, app. 230 are laid off across the Group.
Danske Bank discontinues 400 positions across the Group, primarily within staff and back-office functions. As it has not been possible to find new positions for all affected employees, app. 230 employees are laid off, of which app. 120 are laid off in Denmark, app. 60 in Finland and app. 44 in Lithuania. In Sweden and Norway, the figure is less than ten in each country. As previously announced, 60 employees in Denmark will also leave their positions under voluntary redundancy agreements in the coming months.
Karsten Breum, Head of HR at Danske Bank, comments: “Today, we are discontinuing 400 positions across the Group, and we are taking a number of initiatives to adjust and simplify parts of our organisation. It has not been possible to find new jobs for all affected employees, which means we are laying off approximately 230. It is not easy to say goodbye to skilled and dedicated employees, but, regrettably, it is a necessary part of our efforts to reduce costs in order to ensure that we remain competitive.”
The discontinuation of positions is part of Danske Bank’s 2023 plan, which in addition to significant cost reductions among other things also entails considerable investments in increased digitisation.
“We are looking at all costs across the organisation. As part of our efforts, we also have to look at the number of employees. This is why we introduced a hiring freeze last year and offered voluntary redundancy agreements in certain parts of our organisation in Denmark in January,” says Karsten Breum.
Customer-facing units are not affected by the discontinuation of positions, except for Finland where retail banking is being reorganised. Further, Danske Bank’s compliance functions are not affected.