ING axes 7,000 jobs in digital banking drive
Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING Group
Dutch bank ING is cutting 7,000 jobs as its push to digital banking goes full throttle.
In its strategy update “Accelerating Think Forward”, CEO Ralph Hamers and other executives will introduce a number of initiatives – such as investing €800 million in digital transformation from 2016 to 2021. The bank says its programmes will also lead to approximately €900 million annual cost savings by 2021; but will “impact around 7,000 employees, mostly in Belgium and the Netherlands”.
In his speech, Hamers says it has “attracted over three million new customers, supported the economy by growing lending by around €56 billion and strengthened our capital”.
He says customers are “increasingly digital and bank with us more and more through mobile devices”. At the same time, banks are “confronted with continuous regulatory burden and a prolonged period of ultra-low interest rates”.
These factors have led to ING’s job cuts and it will move towards “one digital banking platform”.
Hamers says over the coming five years, around 7,000 functions “might be impacted by these effects, including 950 positions employed by external suppliers”.
He says: “While not all plans we present today are finalised, the intended initiatives are expected to result in a reduction of ING´s workforce in Belgium by around 3,500 FTEs [full-time equivalent] and by around 2,300 FTEs in the Netherlands for the years 2016-2021.”
He adds that a pre-tax redundancy provision of around €1.1 billion is expected to be booked, of which €1.0 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Further details of the various programmes will become available in the coming months.
