By Katie Davis C anada’s second-largest lender by assets is cutting about 450 jobs, which is just under 1 percent of its work force in Canada. The Royal Bank of Canada say that job cuts are necessary so that they can reinvest in key areas including digital, data, new technology as well as investment in high-growth business areas. This is bad news for employees in an industry that has announced more than 5,000 job cuts due to restructuring by major banks and lending institutions over the last three years, though these numbers are probably much higher given that many banks do not publically disclose job figures or cut back announcements. Royal Bank said it’s making “hundreds of changes “including promotions, transfers and the creation of new roles. Like other leading lending firms in Canada they are looking to cut cost to combat changing customer preferences for banking servers and record low interest rates. “We are making changes that focus on the capabilities that we need now and in the future to meet our clients’ evolving needs” the bank said in an emailed statement. “As always, we consolidate where necessary so that we can reinvest in key areas including digital, data, new technology as well as investment in high-growth business areas.”
Canada’s six largest lenders employed approximately 363,600 workers including 75,281 at RBC according to company disclosures. The job cuts will mostly come from head office locations in the Toronto area.
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JUNE 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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