Luxembourg-based private bank Quintet this year plans to eliminate 165 jobs, or 9 percent of its 2,000-strong workforce in six European countries as it attempts to become a more efficient organisation. “Some” jobs are expected to disappear through natural attrition, a spokesman for the firm said.
Under the new management of Chris Allen, who took charge as chief executive last July, the bank has embarked on a new course, one seeking more standardisation, and a higher level of efficiency, following a number of years where acquisitions were made in several European countries and a tumultuous period during which its former CEO passed away and it was forced to abandon its Swiss ambitions. Inflation and rising interest rates have made the need for an efficient organisation even more pressing.
“Over the course of 2023, as part of our long-term growth strategy, we will realign our organisational model to foster greater efficiency and increased collaboration in service to our clients,” a Quintet spokesperson told Investment Officer. “As a consequence, we expect to reduce the total number of roles at our firm by roughly 9 percent, or approximately 165 roles, over the course of this year.”
Precise impact to be determined
The precise impact on total staff numbers remains to be determined, a spokesman said, as the firm will continue to hire for new roles, especially in the fields of digitalisation, anti-money laundering, know-your-customer and compliance. Quintet still intends to fill dozens of vacant positions.
“Importantly, given that we currently have a large number of open positions and that we will also experience natural attrition - through voluntary resignation and retirement,” the spokesperson said.
“We expect to be able to mitigate the impact on our staff of this role reduction, including through internal mobility and reinforced career management support. We therefore cannot share a precise staff impact figure today, but it will certainly be lower than the number of impacted roles.”
New stage
With the arrival of Chris Allen as new CEO last year, Quintet has embarked on a new stage in its long-term growth. The departure of Quintet’s CEO Europe Thomas Rodermann at the end of last year appears to have marked a turning point for the bank. Rodermann, the former head of UBS in Germany, joined in January 2020 and was the driver of the integration of Merck Finck in Germany, InsingerGillissen in the Netherlands and Puilaetco in Belgium into a single business unit.
That integration push encountered resistance at the different national levels, also given that at the same time, Quintet’s ambitions for 2020 to build a solid Swiss private banking branch were being derailed by the pandemic and the death of CEO Juerg Zeltner, former head of wealth management at UBS who died of cancer in March 2020.
Quintet also is present in the UK, through its Brown Shipley subsidiary, and in Copenhagen.
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