46 employees made redundant

A total of 46 employees of Arion Bank were made redundant today, 27 of whom worked at the Bank’s headquarters and the remaining 19 worked at other locations around the country. After these changes approximately 840 people work at Arion Bank. The Icelandic Directorate of Labour has been informed of these redundancies.

Various factors in the Bank’s operating environment have necessitated changes to the Bank's operations. Most critical in this respect is the fact that financial services are undergoing considerable change at the moment. Customers are increasingly making use of self service solutions such as the bank app, the online bank and ATMs instead of obtaining the same services from their local branch. The use of the app and visits to ATMs at branches have grown hugely in number in recent years. As a result the demand for services at the Bank's branch network has decreased by one third over the last two years. This trend means that changes have had to be made and at the same time organizational changes are being introduced to the branch network, without however closing down any branches.

These changes are part of a raft of more widespread measures designed to boost operating efficiency at Arion Bank. Despite extensive streamlining and restructuring measures undertaken in recent years, the number of employees has remained stable as a result of acquisitions of other financial institutions and growing business activity. It has been a difficult step to make these cutbacks in the workforce but it is necessary in light of the Bank’s shifting focus and external conditions.