Portuguese banks shed 1000 staff in 1 year

Six of the main banks in the Portuguese market lost 1,016 staff between September 2019 and September 2020.

The number of bank branches has also been slashed and today there are 187 fewer in the country than there were in September 2019 as the Portuguese banking sector moves towards digitalisation and on-line banking.
The data is relative to the banks BCP, BPI, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Santander Portugal, Novo Banco and Montepio as the sector fights to cut costs says Dinheiro Vivo.
The bank that shed the most jobs was the State-owned Caixa Geral (CGD) which has 602 employees less than in 2019.
This is followed by Santander, with 194 less staff and BPI with 107 fewer. In terms of branch closures, Santander closed the most with 46. This was followed by BPI whose network lost 42, while BCP shut down 37 branches.
The sector is preparing to take an even bigger hair cut regarding staff and agencies. Montepio and Santander are two banks that are currently going through a staff-shedding process and analysts expect that 2021 will continue the trend which will be accelerated because of the economic crisis caused by the measures adopted by the Government due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The crisis has also led the banks to lose profits. All told, the six banks saw their net profits fall by €1Bn compared to the same period in 2019. This was partly because the banks had to set side a cushion to accommodate possible losses from bad loans.
In all, the banks set aside nearly €2Bn for eventual losses, particularly from bad loans. Novo Banco set aside €833 million, €229 million more than by September 2019.