Westpac, an Australian multinational banking and financial services company, plans to axe 200 teller jobs across its branch network and redeploy those resources into home and business lending roles, The Australian Financial Review (AFR) has reported.
The bank attributed the change to growing customer use of its mobile app, online banking and ATMs.
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“This year we’ve invested in our digital-first strategy to support our customers’ changing needs and our digital citizens focus,” Westpac ail banking general manager Damien MacRae said in an email to staff.
Westpac said it intends to hire 200 staff for lending roles and will allocate A$200m ($132m) over the next three years to upgrades of ATMs and branch facilities.
Affected employees will be offered training to assist customers in using upgraded digital services.
The Finance Sector Union warned the cuts will reduce essential in-person services for some customers and criticised the move as effectively prompting staff to make their own roles redundant.
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By GlobalDataThe announcement comes amid reports that Westpac is planning a larger restructure that could impact up to 1,500 positions.
A Westpac spokesperson said the bank needed to change its workforce composition to align with its investment priorities.
“While we continue to invest in extra bankers, other areas may need fewer resources,” they said.
“We try to keep as many employees in the Westpac Group as we can, through retraining and redeployment.”
In recent weeks, ANZ disclosed plans to cut 3,500 full-time roles and 1,000 contractor roles, while NAB announced 410 redundancies and the relocation of 127 jobs overseas.
