According to a local trade association, the Australian lender Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) will eliminate around 300 positions in its consumer and commercial banking areas during a period of robust profit growth despite rising interest rates and skyrocketing inflation. This comes at a time when the company’s profits have been growing strongly.
The Finance Sector Union of Australia (FSU) said on Friday that the third-largest bank in the country, Westpac, will slash the number of employees working in its Consumer and Business Banking Division, citing an internal document that the union had received from Westpac.
As of September 2022, the total number of full-time equivalent employees at Westpac was 37,476. The projected layoffs constitute 0.8% of this workforce.
Reuters could not independently get the internal paper
The FSU National Secretary, Julia Angrisano, criticized the layoffs and stated that “Westpac workers have already been struggling with excessive workload demands,” and that “these cuts mean that those who are left behind will need to do more with less.”
In May, Westpac, along with other major lenders such as ANZ Group (ANZ.AX), National Australia Bank (NAB.AX), and Singapore’s DBS Group (DBSM.SI), issued a warning about the impending pressure on the banks’ net interest margins due to the fact that interest rate cycles are getting closer and closer to their peaks.
In the midst of an environment characterized by high inflation, Westpac, Australia’s No. 2 mortgage provider, announced in May that its net profit for the first half of the year increased by 22% to A$4.00 billion ($2.70 billion).
Due to the fact that Monday is a holiday, we were unable to get in touch with the bank in order to get their prompt reaction.
