Filenews 25 July 2022
The Voluntary Retirement of Personnel From the Bank of Cyprus scheme was successfully completed.
Specifically, the Bank of Cyprus Holdings Public Limited Company ("BOC Holdings" and, together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") announced the successful completion of a voluntary redundancy plan (the "Scheme"). The Plan falls within the Group's strategy to further improve efficiency by reducing the number of stores and the number of staff.
Through the Scheme, approximately 550 employees have been approved for retirement, with the total cost amounting to approximately €99 million which is expected to be recognised in the consolidated income statement for the third quarter. Upon completion of the Scheme, the number of staff is reduced by approximately 16% and the annual savings are estimated at approximately €37 million or about 19% of personnel costs.
In addition, the Group has reduced the number of stores by 20 since the beginning of the year to 60, with the decrease amounting to 25%.
Through these two successful actions, the Group managed to meet earlier its target of reducing staff by 15% and the number of stores by 25% by the end of 2022.
Including the recent Plan, the Group has since June 2019 reduced the number of staff by more than 1,300 people (a decrease of about 30%), and the size of the store network by 37 stores (a decrease of about 40%).
Panicos Nikolaou, CEO of Bank of Cyprus Holdings, commented: "The successful completion of the recent voluntary redundancy plan means that we are achieving earlier than planned our goal of streamlining our operating model, which is key to improving our operational efficiency, the sustainability of our business model and achieving our medium-term goals."
