Many banks across the world have resorted to layoffs following the pandemic-induced slump last year. Robobank is also planning to reduce its team size by 5,000 roles in the next five years. The Dutch cooperative bank, based in Utretcht, Netherlands, intends to reduce 1,000 jobs ever year, on an average, for the next five years.
The lender, which provides financial backing to agricultural businesses, closed down three of its trade and commodity finance offices, in January 2021. Its operations in Sydney, Shanghai and London will be closed. However, wholesale banking activities will continue, so that the clients are not left in the lurch.
Rabobank is considering a proposal to streamline and centralise its European trade and commodity finance operations across locations, from London to Utrecht.
While the Bank has been working on becoming more cost efficient for some time now, the pandemic speeded up the process, due to the drastic changes that it brought about in the banking space. In addition, with rising cases of fraud and defaults in the banking sector, Rabobank is now seriously reviewing its organisation.
Teams devoted to trade finance will continue to be available for clients in Utrecht, Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Nairobi. The Bank is committed to helping its clients in smoothly transitioning to other financial solutions without being adversely affected or inconvenienced in any way.
In November 2020, Dutch bank ABN Amro had revealed its intention to slay about 3,000 jobs by 2024, opting to restrict its global exposure to northwest Europe only.
