Financial services group ING is to reduce its workforce by nearly 3,000 over the next three years as it streamlines its online services.

The bank said it is scrapping the jobs at its retail banking headquarters, in its administrative department, call centres and in IT. The cuts are due to the integration of the different IT systems which are currently used for its mobile app, website, call centre and branches. The changes should lead to annual savings of €270m from 2018, the bank said.

Unions shocked

ING has cut thousands of jobs in the past few years and currently has a workforce of some 53,000 worldwide, of whom 16,000 are in the Netherlands.

Banking unions told news agency ANP they were shocked by the job losses, which are larger than had been expected.

In a statement, ING said it is making the changes ‘in order to improve the customer experience and enhance operational excellence’.