MILAN (Reuters) -Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, said it would save 500 million euros ($539 million) in staff costs starting from 2028 after reaching an agreement with unions on Wednesday to fund an early retirement scheme for 4,000 employees.
The early retirements will be spread out through 2027 and will be accompanied by the hiring of 2,000 staff, Italy’s main banking union FABI said.
Intesa will hire another 1,500 people on “hybrid” contracts, meaning they will work part time directly for the bank and as consultants the rest of the time, FABI added.
The 1,500 new hires will focus on boosting sales of wealth management and insurance products across Intesa’s branch network, the bank said.
Intesa said it would book a net charge of around 350 million euros in the fourth quarter to fund the voluntary exits, which would not affect its 2024 net profit goal of more than 8.5 billion euros.
“With today’s accord we’ve provided initial answers to help workers facing the digital transformation that will reshape banking in the coming years,” said Paolo Citterio, FABI representative within the Intesa group.
Citterio said a new committee had been created to monitor the impact of growing digitisation on Intesa’s operations.
Technology advances are driving changes in banking globally, with artificial intelligence sharply reducing the need for staff dedicated to back-office functions.
Intesa’s deal comes days after a similar deal by UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank by assets. UniCredit recently negotiated with unions to allow early retirement for 1,000 corporate centre employees, while committing to hire 500 new staff members.
($1 = 0.9273 euros)
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Alvise Armellini and Lisa Shumaker)
