WestLB to cut a fifth of staff
The supervisory board of the German state-owned bank is due to ratify the proposal, which could reduce headcount below 6,000, at a meeting next Tuesday.
The cuts, which would come on top of ongoing plans to reduce the 7,800 headcount to 7,200 by the year-end, are likely to hit the bank's Düsseldorf head office, in particular its IT operations, as well as overseas offices.
People close to the bank said up to 600 jobs would go in IT as well as about 500 in overseas offices, with the rest of the cuts coming in general administration. WestLB has stepped up its plans to shrink since May when it revealed shock losses for last year of €1.7bn ($1.9bn) after taking €1.9bn of write-downs and provisions, including €430m related to a loan to UK television rental group BoxClever.
