Spain: new bleeding of jobs in banks

Spain will once again cut thousands of posts and agencies.

Two of the largest banks in the country announced this week vast plans for departures: around 8,300 positions - almost one in five jobs - at CaixaBank, and 3,800 at BBVA, or 16% of the workforce.

REUTERS - SUSANA VERA

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Another bleeding of employment in Spanish banks.

Two of the country's largest establishments announced sweeping departure plans this week.

CaixaBank got the ball rolling at the start of the week, soon to be joined by the BBVA.

In total, more than 12,000 jobs are being lost.

If we add up with the plans of two other banks, since the fall, more than 17,000 job losses have been announced in the sector.

So why such a hemorrhage? 

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As far as CaixaBank is concerned, this is partly linked to its merger with Bankia. 

Beyond that, all the banks put forward the same arguments: interest rates are low and with the crisis linked to the pandemic, they will have to remain so.

Banks must therefore reduce their costs.

The target was not difficult to find: the ATMs that have lost their luster with the rise of online banking services.

An example: at the BBVA, which will cut 16% of its workforce, internet transactions have increased by 87% in two years. 

This hemorrhage is not new in the Iberian country.

Between 2008 and 2019, the sector was reduced by nearly 40% of its employees, around 100,000 people.  

This is partly due to the consolidation of the sector.

The myriad of local funds, which had fueled the real estate bubble, were absorbed by the big banks and in the process, they slashed the workforce. 

And the process is probably not finished.

Although in a decade Spain has lost almost half of these bank branches, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, it still has twice as many as the European average. 

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