Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) confirmed the closure of 350 branches and 2,500 dismissals by the end of 2018.

The dismissals add up to the 5,500 job cuts envisaged by previous plans (see Monte dei Paschi di SienaIT-2013).The management announced that the reduction of personnel was requested by the European institutions as part of rescue measures put in place after the 2013 financial crisis. At that time, the bank faced the risk of failure as significant budget losses had been fraudulently hidden to financial authorities for years and finally disclosed by the incoming management.

As for the closures of branches, 50 already took place in 2015, whilst another 300 will be spanned over the 2016-2018 period.

The bank also informed that several measures are being undertaken in order to dispose of non-performing loan (NPL), among which the conferral of  mandate to Mediobanca to create a platform for the management thereof.

Trade unions expect that, similarly to previous redundancy plans, redundancies will be implemented via early retirements or voluntary dismissals. Yet, they consider the closure of branches worrisome, insofar the group is significantly reducing its operations in Italy.