Top layoffs on banking market in 2009

Five banks on the market, four of which top ten players, cut more than 2,000 jobs together, pressured by the crisis to adjust their costs.
The 2009 recession swallowed more than 3,700 jobs from the bank market, driving the total number of employees down to some 67,900.
At the end of 2008, after three years of spectacular lending growth, the bank personnel had reached a record peak of more than 71,600 people. Last year’s crisis quickly brought it down to the 2007 level.
Without clients to take out loans, hundreds of employees in the thousands of bank offices and branches were left without work partners. Some of them were moved to collection of overdue loans, while some left the financial market.
Bank sources say the harshest adjustment was made by Credit Europe Bank, number fourteen on the market, which cut the number of staff by more than 500 to 1,545.
Bancpost, the ninth leading lender in Romania, also operated an extensive personnel cutback, letting more than 400 people go, and keeping about 3,500, although it only closed 9 branches.
The ground rule applied by most banks was to not replace the people who left by retirement or on their own free will, except for those situations where a key position was vacated.