NZ escapes National Australia Bank job cuts

In a major business direction statement announced today called "Positioning for Growth" NAB mapped out a number of new initiatives, including plans to ramp up its wealth management business by investing A$200 million over three years in Australia and A$90 million in the UK.

It will also spend A$95 million to upgrade IT systems for customer-facing staff in Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.

A number of redundancies are on the cards too with 1,500 jobs expected to disappear in Australia and a further 550 redundancies outside Australia.

"Overall there will a reduction of 3,400 positions but this will be offset by the creation of 1,400 new positions and natural attrition and redeployment," says NAB boss Frank Cicutto.

"A provision of between A$175 million and A$225 million to cover redundancies will be made in the full year accounts."

However Bank of New Zealand MD, Peter Thodey, says the bank does not expect any significant change in the number of jobs on this side of the Tasman.

"Positioning for Growth provided Bank of New Zealand with an opportunity to review all of its strategies and operations, and clarify the direction for existing and future projects.

"That review was completed late last year, and the outcomes have been integrated into our business plans for this year and they are being progressively implemented as part of our usual business operations."

Mr Thodey says BNZ will have a greater focus on customer service and product development opportunities, including further investment in ATMs, branches and call centres.

NAB also wants to see its retail financial services in New Zealand deliver a cost/income ratio of 48% by 2004 compared to last year's ratio of 56.2%.

In Australia AAP reported that the much-expected strategic review had failed to excite the market with analysts commenting they were neither surprised nor disappointed by the NAB's new targets and confirmed job cuts.

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