Bank merger on the way: A word from the employees’ representatives
A merger between Sydbank, Arbejdernes Landsbank and Vestjysk Bank is planned to take place, placing the new entity among the five largest banks in Denmark under the new name AL Sydbank. Right now, the employee representatives in the three banks are focused on their colleagues.
What happens next?
The merger proposal is now to be considered at extraordinary general meetings of all three banks.
- The extraordinary general meetings will be held on 2, 3 and 4 December.
- The banks’ boards of directors unanimously recommend their shareholders to vote in favour of the merger.
- The merger also requires the approval of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and the competition authorities.
More than 4,000 employees
Sydbank estimates that synergies worth DKK 1.2 billion may be realised through the merger. According to the newspaper Børsen, Mark Luscombe said at a press conference on Monday morning that the savings would be realised through a common IT platform. Today, the three banks employ two different data centres: Bankdata (Sydbank) and BEC (Arbejdernes Landsbank and Vestysk Bank).
Altogether, the three banks have 140 branches throughout Denmark, and, at the press conference, the CEO talked about the possibility of merging branches with overlapping functions.
Together, the three banks employ more than 4,000 people. Mark Luscombe also said that the merger will lead to the elimination of jobs in the long term, but did not want to put a figure on how many yet.
"But it’s clear that there will be job losses. As sad as it is, it won’t happen quickly. So it gives us the possibility of letting natural wastage cover some of it", he said according to Børsen.
Employees first
Jarl Oxlund, Chairman of Finansforbundet in Sydbank, sees many perspectives in the plans.
“We’re still at an early stage, but we are convinced that the merger plans will bring even more value that will benefit both customers and employees. Our focus is always our members, and a lot of things still need to be clarified, but in our view, the plans appear to have many sound perspectives,” he says.
This positivity is shared by Arbejdernes Landsbank. Their focus is on answering any questions their colleagues may have in the time ahead.
“We are positive about quite many of the possibilities offered by the decision and the future of a new, strong constellation. This is a huge event to us, and, of course, it means that our colleagues will have lots of questions. So, that is obviously our focus now”, says Jesper Pedersen, Senior Union Representative at Arbejdernes Landsbank.
At Vestjysk Bank, Jacob Møllgaard, Senior Union Representative, also says they will make every effort to be there for the employees.
“It’s big news to everyone at Vestjysk Bank, which, of course, leaves a lot of questions. We are answering them to the extent possible, and we are working hard to be there for as many colleagues as possible”, he says.
At the central level, Dorrit Brandt, President of Finansforbundet, is also following developments.
“The sector is currently experiencing several significant changes. In the present case of AL Sydbank, an agreement still needs to be completely settled, but a merger of this magnitude is attracting a lot of attention in the Danish banking sector. We are following developments closely and, naturally, our main concern is the employees in each of the three workplaces involved,” she says.