Westpac is not ruling out potential job cuts amid reports it is planning to shed more than 1500 positions.
The bank’s new chief executive, Anthony Miller, wants to cut costs and streamline its systems and technology, the Australian Financial Reviewreports.
Sources not authorised to comment to the Nine newspaper say managers have been asked to review how they will slash the number of employees by 5 per cent across most teams over the coming months.
Plans for a new round of redundancies at Westpac, which employs more than 30,000 people in Australia, come after its first-half results, released this month, disappointed investors.
A spokesperson for Westpac told 9news.com.au they could not confirm precise numbers, but confirmed some redundancies were under being considered.
“We adjust the composition of our workforce according to our investment priorities,” the spokesperson said.
“While we continue to invest in extra bankers and customer-facing roles, other programs and initiatives may need fewer resources. This means, from time to time, we make changes that may impact some roles and responsibilities.
“As the skills and capabilities required in banking continue to evolve, so will our workforce.
“We try to keep as many employees as we can, through retraining and redeployment.”
The spokesperson also said Westpac hired nearly 5000 people over the past year.
Any 5 per cent cut in staff numbers would mean 1700 staff exiting the company, based on Westpac’s last publicly available full-time head count.
It would be in addition to the nearly 900 full-time jobs shed in the last financial year.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been cutting jobs in the wake of last week’s quarterly results.
The Finance Sector Union said yesterday managers have announced they were shedding 163 positions.
This brings the redundancies across CBA and Bankwest to nearly 800 over the past year.
