Santander Consumer Bank Italia (SBC) “Due to the increase in the use of digital channels instead of branches, SCB Italia has decided to close branches and reinforce its digitalization to continue offering the best possible service to its customers,” it explained to EFE today. a spokesperson for the entity.
Likewise, SCB Italia has announced that it will begin “conversations” with the unions “this week” and has committed to reducing the impact of the layoffs “as far as possible.” The president of SCB Italia, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, and his CEO, Alberto Merchiori, have sent their plans to the union organizations, with “a reduction in staff and the closure of all subsidiaries in the national territory.”
This is stated in separate statements from the Italian Autonomous Banking Federation (FABI) and the Italian Federation of the Insurance and Credit Union (FISAC), a branch of the main Italian union, the CGIL. “We are once again facing the umpteenth phenomenon of “banking desertification” that hits the sector,” the FABI secretary of Turin (north), Paola Cogli Ciccarelli, denounced in a statement.
SCB, belonging to the Spanish banking giant and present in sixteen other European countries, to date has 21 subsidiaries spread throughout Italy, as well as 738 employees. The company’s planes, according to FISAC, involve closing “all” those offices and laying off 14% of the workforce.
“Union representatives declare their concern and opposition to a plan that hits staff again, aggravates banking desertification in the country and puts many affected areas in trouble,” the note reads. The management of SCB Italia and the unions have agreed to meet tomorrow, September 14, to examine the situation.
