ANZ culling 200 jobs due to ‘subdued economic conditions’

ANZ will be culling 200 jobs from the local workforce, it announced Tuesday. The hardest hit will be in Melbourne, where the job cuts will affect back-office workers.

Australia’s fourth largest bank has advised its staff of the layoffs, which would mostly affect employees in Victoria. The cuts will target managerial and departments in marketing and project management.

“The changes are in response to subdued economic conditions, low lending growth and the need to simplify our business and improve productivity,” a spokesman said.

Employees who would be made redundant will be able to access the company’s support services, which include career retraining fund, and will be eligible to apply for other jobs within the company. Workers will also go through a “preference and selection” process, wherein they could apply for other positions in scaled-down departments. However, the employees could not take part in that process if the company could not find a suitable position for them.

Those who would be left without new roles would be made redundant.

“We’re being upfront with staff today that there will be impacts,” the rep said, adding the staff will learn if they still have jobs in the company within a month. The bank has also frozen external firing to maximise redeployment opportunities for its staff.

ANZ posted $2.78 billion cash profit for six months until March, was a 24.3 percent drop when it had been expecting $3.6 billion. The fall was due to a $717 million hit from writedowns and restructuring charges.

The latest job cuts come after the company culled 1,261 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the 12 months leading to March 2016. It currently has 48,896 FTEs. Earlier this month, it cut its interim dividend to 80 cents for a payout ratio of 67 percent.

The bank was up $24.49 in shares in latest trading.