Dutch bank’s Dublin workforce escape axe

ALMOST 160 staff at ABN-Amro’s Dublin office appear to have escaped the axe after the Dutch bank announced 2,800 job losses across the group yesterday.

The cuts represent 3% of the company’s workforce and aim to save €770 million every year from 2007. They will come at a once-off cost of €790m. But a “little or no impact” at the bank’s office in Dublin’s IFSC, although it would be three to six months before the final details of the restructuring programme would be made known.

The Dublin operation focuses on wholesale client services, which include financial engineering and global treasury. The wholesale division will bear 1,350 of the losses, but these will be partly offset by the hiring of 250 replacements in changes in the division’s business.

Three-quarters of the job cuts will come from ABN-Amro offices in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) division. Staff in the Netherlands and Britain will be most affected, with half of the total cuts coming from those two units. Approximately 300 job losses will be split between the remaining 24 countries in the EMEA region.

The bank said employees would be consulted before the plans were implemented.