ING to eliminate 1700 jobs in Netherlands

ING announced on Tuesday that it will cut approximately 1,700 jobs in the Netherlands within the next three years. The financial group wants to focus more on the digitization of its banking activities. Furthermore, the number of full-time jobs filled by external services will be reduced by approximately 1,075. Most of the jobs will disappear from the main office for consumer banking at ING, in the administrative services, call centers and IT departments. ING will use 200 million euro to further simplify and automate the IT system.In connection with the job loss, a provision for tax is formed of 320 million euro in the fourth quarter of this year. According to the bank, this procedure should result in annual cost savings of 270 million euro from 2018. The announced measures follow earlier initiatives in 2011 and 2012. Thousands of jobs have already disappeared in the financial concern in recent years. ING wants to switch to a comprehensive approach to digital banking, where customers can do all their banking digitally and all information will be readily available in all channels. "In today's digital world change is a constant factor. Customers use different channels to conduct their banking. They expect to do their banking in the way they want, when they want and in a consistent, reliable, clear and simple way. In this environment we must continuously improve our services", said ING CEO Ralph Hamers regarding the job losses. Hamers said that the company will do its utmost to support the employees involved in finding a new job.