Milan (AFP)
After having already cut its workforce, the Italian bank UniCredit envisages up to 10,000 additional job cuts, according to Bloomberg, which would add to the thousands of positions already condemned by other big names in the sector in Europe.
UniCredit, which employs some 86,000 people, would consider cutting up to 10,000 jobs, as part of its new strategic plan to be announced on December 3 in London, according to the agency quoted sources close to the case. They would come on top of the 14,000 full-time equivalents lost in recent years.
The figure is not definitive and job cuts could be "much weaker," adds Bloomberg.
These cuts will affect Italy, where the bank has its largest workforce, and other countries. UniCredit also plans to reduce its operational costs by up to 10%, according to the news agency.
Contacted by AFP, UniCredit declined to comment.
? Stabilize revenues, control costs?
In a recent interview at Italy's economic information website Milano Finanza, UniCredit's boss, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Mustier, stressed that the next strategic plan would be dedicated to the "UniCredit transformation", while the previous one was "a restructuring plan".
"Efficiency will come mainly from business optimization - for example, we will streamline processes and product mix through automation and digitization, and this increased efficiency will allow our staff to dedicate more time to business. customers, "he said.
He pointed out that the context, marked by weak economic growth and negative interest rates, did not allow a strategy based on revenue growth. And European mergers are "very difficult," he added.
In this context, it will be necessary to "work both on the stabilization of revenue sources and on cost control".
Since his arrival in July 2016 at the helm of UniCredit, Mr. Mustier has led a vast reorganization of the bank by selling various participations, by launching a vast capital increase, cutting the workforce and selling billions of euros. deteriorated credits.
Other major European banks have also recently announced cuts in their workforce.
The German group Deutsche Bank presented on July 17 the largest restructuring plan in its history with the removal of 18,000 jobs, finally ending the dreams of international magnitude of the first German bank.
Société Générale in France decided in April to remove 1,600 jobs worldwide, including around 750 in France, wanting to reduce the size of its market activities.
His compatriot BNP Paribas plans to cut 640 jobs by the end of 2020 in the management echelons of his retail bank in France. It also plans to cut more than 2,000 jobs within three years in its Belgian subsidiary Fortis.
? Different situation?
"We are facing very different groups" and situations "not comparable", reports to AFP David Benamou, director of investments at Axiom Alternative Investments.
"BNP Paribas and UniCredit are the most advanced in their restructuring". In contrast, Deutsche Bank "is the latest," said the analyst.
There remains, according to him, that these institutions face common difficulties and in particular a historically low interest rate environment that complicates the task of making the money grow.
In the long term, this potion, a consequence of successive plans to support the economies of the major central banks, is proving increasingly indigestible for commercial banks whose margins are compressed on their traditional retail activities and on a certain number of steps.
Other obstacles include: stronger banking regulations and capital requirements, large investments required to adapt to the digital revolution, growing competition from major US banking groups in financing and investment activities. investment or international geopolitical tensions that constrain activity.
The prolongation in time of very offensive monetary policies "gives headaches to the banks, in a context where the profitability of many of them is already under pressure and where new forms of competition appear", for its part Emmanuel Volland, Analyst at S & P Global Ratings.
© 2019 AFP