National Australia Bank will cut up to 2,500 jobs, or about 6 per cent of its workforce, by mid-2027.
That will include up to 1,500 roles before the end of this year, NAB said in a statement to the stock exchange. In addition to the internal cuts, NAB also plans to “materially reduce its use of consultants and external contractors”.
The announcement, lodged with the ASX on Tuesday morning, said it’s part of “actions to simplify its operating model and better align its workforce to prioritise growth and technology initiatives for customers”.
The bank has flagged a restructuring charge of approximately $300 million with more details to come in its full-year results announcement on November 5.
Australian banks, large and small, have been cutting their workforces, with a major restructure at ANZ leading to thousands of job losses in the past year.
Last month, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank proposed cutting 137 jobs as part of an ongoing restructure.
“NAB is implementing these changes as part of a broader review to identify the nature of the workforce required to support NAB’s strategic ambition in an evolving operating environment,” the bank said.
“These actions will help make NAB a stronger bank, better placed to navigate risks and opportunities arising from more challenging economic conditions, increasing customer expectations, competitive intensity and rapid technological change.”
NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine said there would be no material impact to customer-facing banking roles.
“These changes are expected to improve outcomes for customers by reducing duplication and speeding up decision making,” he said.
“We are particularly focused on reducing the size of corporate functions … We have also deliberately made deeper changes to senior management positions, which will broaden leadership responsibilities across the bank.”
Mr Irvine acknowledged it would be a “difficult period” for the employees affected and pledged to treat everyone “with dignity and respect”.
Last week the Commonwealth Bank refused to make a “blanket commitment” to staff that artificial intelligence won’t take their jobs.
During its annual general meeting on Wednesday, staff voiced their displeasure about a lack of job security.
Commonwealth Bank chair Paul O’Malley faced repeated questions about the1000 staff who had their jobs impacted over the year due to operational restructures, automation, and technology shifts.
Out of the near 1000 staff members hit, 500 of them were redeployed in other roles by the bank.
“There’s no ability to give a blanket commitment to any individual or to the nation. We are seeing competition today come from tech firms outside of Australia who are deploying AI and taking Australian businesses out of the value chain,” Mr O’Malley said.
In April, The Finance Sector Union attacked Bendigo Bank’s partnership with global tech companies Infosys and Genpact, which represented dramatic escalation to protect Australian jobs from being wiped out by AI.
Bendigo Bank refused to outline the number of staff that would be impacted, but the FSU anticipates it could be in the hundreds – with some reports indicating up to 1000.
The union says it is unlikely that any area of the bank will be spared in this next phase of the bank’s so-called ‘productivity program’, with the first wave of cuts expected over the coming months in the technology division.
The FSU is aware other areas impacted include business and agribusiness, lending assessment and fulfilment, third party banking fulfilment, lending operations – consumer, customer processing and wealth operations, customer remediation, mortgage help, operational excellence, finance, financial crime operations and contact centre.