Nordea has announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs as it moves to trim costs and increase profitability.

Scandinavian banking group Nordea is to reduce its workforce by 2,000 employees as part of plans to cut costs and increase profitability, the firm announced yesterday. The extent to which wealth management operations are effected is as yet unclear.

The cuts are expected to number between 500 and 650 jobs each in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, and between 200 and 300 in Norway. The total number of employees at Nordea is around 34,000.

Nordea has started negotiations with trade unions on reducing the number of employees and the firm aims to reach a large share of the reduction in staff cost through natural turnover and voluntary agreements, said a statement.

“To increase efficiency is never easy. But we will act early and from a position of strength. By initiating measures to increase profitability early, we safeguard our good rating, competitive funding and thus our ability to offer products and services at the right price to our customers. The alternative - to wait and see - is not an option,” said Christian Clausen, president and chief executive of Nordea.

Nordea said its ambition is to “maintain its place among the top-league banks in Europe” and to return equity levels of around 15 per cent. It added that in light of the challenges expected to be created by the increased costs imposed by new global regulation, it has “decided to take early action to safeguard its strong position on funding and customer relations.”

“The stipulated time for the formal trade union negotiations is different from country to country, and all processes are expected to be finalised in November,” the firm said.

Nordea also stated it would continue with other cost and capital efficiency measures in the autumn, returning with cost savings and restructuring cost estimates.