ABN Amro has announced it is scrapping 2350 jobs in the next three to four years, but the bank appears to have returned to its core business - making a profit.

Chairman of the managing board and former finance minister Gerrit Zalm expects 1500 people to be made redundant and 850 people to leave as a result of people reaching pension age or leaving for other jobs. At the same time, the bank hopes to create 450 new jobs.

ABN Amro had already announced that it wanted to scrap hundreds of jobs every year until 2014 to make the bank more efficient and improve its profitability.

Nevertheless, its books are already showing huge increases in profits for the first six months of the year. Net profit reached 864 million euros, compared to a net loss of 968 million euros last year. The underlying profit, which does not include disposing of various divisions and the cost of integration, climbed to 974 million euros from 325 million in the same period last year – when results were affected by extra legal costs.

Since the economic crisis hit Europe in 2008, the bank has been owned by the Dutch state.

(nc/mw)

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