FRANKFURT-- Commerzbank AG's (CBK.XE) plans to cut between 4,000
and 6,000 full-time jobs by 2016 will affect all group levels and
units, in Germany and abroad, although online bank Comdirect and
Polish unit BRE Bank (BRE.WA) will be excluded, according to
internal documents seen by Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
The bank's cost-cutting plans, which include shifting workload
to lower-cost areas and streamlining procedures in the retail
banking business, were presented to the bank's works council
Wednesday, according to the documents, and talks with labor
representatives will likely start in February.
The bank didn't provide a breakdown of what planned job cuts
will be for Germany only.
Compulsory redundancies will be the ultimate measure to achieve
the job cuts, according to the documents. In Germany, companies can
use options such as early retirement, natural attrition and
part-time work to cut jobs without outright layoffs.
In the retail bank, Commerzbank has a jobs overhang compared
with revenues, with current staffing based on calculations of 12
million securities orders in 2008, while the 2011 securities orders
of 5 million marked only a fraction of that a whole previous
figure, according to the documents.
Commerzbank's plans, announced in November, to invest 2 billion
euro ($2.66 billion) in the business as a whole are only possible
when revenues increase and costs decline, the bank has said. The
cost cuts will also affect non-personnel costs, with measures that
have already been put in place continuing.
Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com
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