Citibanamex laid off 2,000 workers for this reason

The country's third largest asset base, which posted record profits last year, attributed the layoffs to an attempt to "simplify and streamline" its organizational structure

After Banorte and BBVA Bancomer, it is the turn of Citibanamex. The third Mexican bank by assets, lagging behind the two previous ones, will lay off 2,000 workers between the end of October and the end of March next year, in the process of transitioning to a more digital model, in which staffing requirements are more in more important. minor. The company, owned by the US giant Citigroup since 2001, made record profits in more than 10 years last year – 24.34 billion pesos ($ 1.275 billion), up 46% from 2016 – and imputes this attempt to the dismissals. to "restructure the organization towards a more horizontal, simpler and more agile model". Citibanamex will grow from 36,000 current employees to approximately 34,000 in the first quarter of 2019.




The trend is repeating: faced with the digital avalanche, which has reduced the frequency of customer visits to agencies and the number of intermediaries needed to reach the user, Mexican banks, like their counterparts Americans have done it before or in the past. Spain is embarking on a process of staff restructuring. Banorte was the first to announce a reduction in its workforce: in July, half a thousand employees were fired in search of synergies after the absorption of its sister entity, Interacciones. Then came the turn of the largest financial conglomerate in Mexico, BBVA Bancomer, which launched in early September the dismissal procedures of 1,500 workers, mainly responsible for daily activities.

A spokesman for Citibanamex confirmed that the majority of workers who will be leaving in the coming weeks of the entity have already been informed and that the reduction will not only affect branch customer service employees – "today , ATMs replace almost everyone "everything for individuals, with what we need fewer cash staff and more staff that helps customers to use the new technological tools" – but also to intermediate controls "The goal," adds the spokesman, "is that teams have fewer hierarchical levels to gain agility in decision-making." There is also no clear structure in terms of age or region: they leave middle-aged employees for employees who are about to retire and opt for early retirement. workers in the consumer banking or insurance sector. Information on layoffs was advanced Wednesday by the newspaper L & # 39; universal.



Virtually all layoffs are due to the technological change that has shaken banks in recent years. But in the case of 500 out of 2,000 people, digitization is a direct cause: "25% go out because they do not respond to the digital profile and therefore can not be repositioned in other functions", they add l & # 39; entity. The reorganization of the staff at Citibanamex started in October 2016, but it is the largest batch of layoffs since. The first victims – about 200 workers – will begin later this month, another 1,200 will be in November and the remaining 600 in the first quarter of 2019.