Raiffeisen closed 20 branches and made 200 employees redundant

Raiffeisen Bank, a top ten bank on the market, started reshuffling its territorial network in the first quarter, closing 20 branches specialising in mortgage loan sale, and further cut its headcount by almost 200 employees. Despite the crisis, the bank last year had maintained the number of branches, but the falling demand for mortgage loans and Raiffeisen’s low interest in “First Home” programme led to the liquidation of “Casa ta” (Your home) agencies destined to real estate loans. Personnel adjustment trend was visible last year and intensified in the first quarter of 2010. Since early 2009, Raiffeisen has cut its number of employees by 860, to almost 6,000. “The bank in the first quarter continued efforts to improve its operations and struggled to offset personnel departures by boosting flows and banking process efficiency,” Bogdan Popa, chief financial officer of Raiffeisen Bank, told ZF. The ongoing crisis also ate into the client portfolio, which narrowed down by over 13,700. Since late 2008, the bank has lost 111,282 clients, going below the 2 million mark.