Bank of Queensland is set to lay off 600 staff as part of a “simplification and digitisation” drive.
The announcement comes just a year after the bank, which specialises in lending to regional Queensland, previously announced it would cut 250 jobs.
The latest cuts are understood to span marketing, human resources and retail banking.
Management was reported to be in consultation with the bank’s 3,163 employees over the job cuts. The Australian reported.
In April, the bank announced a half-year profit of $172 million, a third less than the same period a year earlier but still above market expectations.
Bank of Queensland chief executive Patrick Allaway admitted the lender faced a number of economic hurdles to remaining profitable, including pressure on net interest margins and slowing demand for home loans.
“We are pursuing new avenues and additional initiatives to ensure we meet those goals,” he said then.
In April, BOQ said it had already automated 43 key processes in six months and reduced the cost per mortgage loan settlement by 6 percent compared with the previous corresponding period.
Bank of Queensland is set to lay off up to 600 staff across its operations. Pictured are ATMs at branches in Brisbane
The bank will soon stop accepting new mortgage loan clients through the broker channel.
“We will remain active in the broker market with ME, which has been consistently recognized by the industry for its fast response times and responsive coverage from a passionate support team,” the email states.
‘Our ME brand is the largest in the broker market. We will be updating the BOQ broker portal with more details on how to manage ongoing applications and how to access ongoing support for new loans for existing clients.
‘We will continue to evaluate customer needs and market conditions to determine how our brands can support the retail broker channel in the future.’
In April, the bank announced a half-year profit of $172 million, a third less than the same period a year earlier.
Last year, financial crime watchdog Austrac reprimanded BOQ for having inadequate compliance and risk systems, forcing the bank to come up with a plan to rectify this.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, which regulates the financial sector, said BOQ had acknowledged its past weaknesses in risk management and risk culture.
However, APRA said the bank’s remediation plan would need to show a clear timeline for its implementation detailing “responsible and accountable persons” for each remediation activity.
In February 2021, BOQ acquired ME Bank as a foray into digital-only banking.
BOQ said the $1.3 billion deal would increase its customer base from about 900,000 to 1.45 million, with ME contributing about 550,000.
According to the April half-year financial report, ME accounts for about 340,000 of BOQ’s 1.4 million customers.
This represents a 38 percent drop in the number of ME customers in three years.