Thousands of jobs to go in banking

Greece’s four main banks will have to reduce their employees by at least 5,694 and shut down about 180 branches between them up to the end of 2017. These new reduction demands result from the derailing of the Greek economy generated by the prolonged uncertainty during 2015 which brought the country to the brink of exiting the eurozone.

The job cut and the branch shutdown will have been included in the revised restructuring plans that National, Alpha, Piraeus and Eurobank have submitted to the European Commission’s competition authorities which were required after the four lenders underwent their latest recapitalization process.

The new wave of cuts comes on the back of the Greek banking sector’s major contraction over the last few years. According to data compiled by the Hellenic Bank Association, in 2009 Greece boasted 19 domestic banks, 36 foreign ones (mainly branches of major international lenders) and 16 cooperative banks.

Nowadays there are just seven banks remaining (the four systemic ones plus Attica Bank, HSBC and Panellinia) and only five foreign banks with branches in Greece, and it seems like only three cooperative banks will survive, if they manage to collect the funds required for their recapitalization.