New ABN Amro chief to axe almost a quarter of staff

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ABN Amro is planning to axe almost a quarter of its full-time staff, as the Dutch lender embarks on an overhaul of the business under new chief executive Marguerite Bérard.

The bank said on Tuesday that it would cut 5,200 full-time roles by 2028 as part of a new strategy to reduce costs and boost profitability.

ABN employed about 22,000 full-time employees at the end of last year and said that half of the “net reduction” in headcount would come through attrition, as employees leave without being replaced.

The lender said it had already cut about 1,000 roles since the beginning of this year.

“We know that more must be done to enhance our returns and competitiveness,” said Bérard, a former BNP Paribas executive who became ABN’s first female chief executive in April.

As part of the overhaul, ABN, which reported €2.4bn in net profits for 2024, said it would simplify its operations by reducing its number of legal entities, phasing out legacy technology systems and increasing its use of artificial intelligence.

The shake-up is part of wider changes at the Amsterdam-headquartered bank, which was nationalised during the 2008 financial crisis before being partially reprivatised and relisted in 2015.

ABN was bought for £49bn in 2007 by a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium, a deal that saddled RBS with toxic, mortgage-backed securities and led to its collapse in 2008. 

The UK government stepped in to rescue RBS, which was later renamed NatWest, while the Dutch banking activities of ABN were separately rescued from collapse and merged with those of Fortis in a €25bn nationalisation by the Netherlands.

In September, the Dutch government lowered its stake in ABN to about 20 per cent from more than 30 per cent previously. Its shares have climbed about 80 per cent this year.

ABN also updated its financial targets ahead of a capital markets day on Tuesday, pledging to boost its return on equity — a key metric of banks’ profitability — to at least 12 per cent by 2028.

It is now targeting a cost-to-income ratio of below 55 per cent. In its latest quarterly results, ABN reported a return on equity of 9.5 per cent and a cost-to-income ratio of 65 per cent.

Since taking over, Bérard has announced ABN’s biggest acquisition following its relisting on the stock exchange, buying domestic commercial lender NIBC Bank from Blackstone for €960mn as it seeks to boost its presence in its home market.

On Tuesday, it also announced it would sell its Alfam subsidiary, a personal loans business, to domestic rival Rabobank.

Speaking about the job cuts, Bérard said: “I understand that changes to our cost base, especially reducing [full-time employees], bring uncertainty for our colleagues.” She added that the bank would support employees with “a robust social plan . . . financial support and assistance in finding new opportunities”.