Italian lenders Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano, which are merging to create the country’s third largest bank, are set to axe 1,800 jobs and shut down numerous branches in a bid to boost profitability.

The affected workforce represents 7% of the staff of the merged entity.

The redundancies will be carried out through voluntary departures and talks with unions, while another 800 staff will be reassigned to other jobs.

The number of branches will be shrunk by 14% to 2,082.

In March 2016, the two Italian lenders agreed to merge with EUR171bn in assets, over 2,400 branches and nearly 25,000 employees.

The banks plan to double their combined net income before extraordinary items to EUR1.1bn in 2019.

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