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Danske Bank's new chief executive Chris Vogelzang said earlier
this month that the bank needed to cut up to 15% of
staff-related costs in FX and fixed income in the short term.
Denmark's biggest bank has lost customers and warned of lower
than expected earnings since reports emerged in 2017 of its
involvement in one of the world's biggest money-laundering
scandals via its Estonia branch.
The cost reduction, which is part of a wider restructuring of
the bank's FX, equity and fixed income units, was mainly
achieved through job cuts, Jakob Groot, head of Corporate &
Institutions, said.
"Unfortunately this has meant that we said goodbye to several
good colleagues today," he told Reuters, adding that his
division had achieved the targeted cost savings with Thursday's
staff reductions.
"This has nothing to do with the Estonia case," Groot said.
The cost cuts are the result of a combination of very low
interest rates, lower market volatility and digitalization in
the financial industry, he said.
The staff cuts included Danske's global head of foreign exchange
Niklas Karlsson.
"This is part of the restructuring at the bank, and I was
unfortunately left out," Karlsson told Reuters.
"The management sets the team. I have been very, very happy
working at Danske and have absolutely nothing bad to say about
the bank," said Karlsson, who had spent 19 years at the bank.
Danske introduced a hiring freeze last month to cope with rising
compliance costs and a tough business environment, which has
also prompted three cuts to its annual outlook this year.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Edmund Blair
and Jane Merriman)
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