This announcement may come as a shock, as the group has just announced record profits of over ten billion euros and an equal redistribution to shareholders. However, today the management of BNP Paribas Personal Finance, the division of the banking group specializing in consumer loans, presented a proposal to union organizations. “operational restructuring project” to find “To growth and profitability”. The division achieved a net profit before tax of 1.1 billion euros in 2022 (with 50% of Floa Bank), compared to 1.6 billion euros in 2019 (before the health crisis).
According to unions, this restructuring will result in the dismissal of 921 people. “Without forced separation”indicates a bank source. The management plans to play on internal mobility and voluntary separation within the group. On the other hand, the bank refuses to comment on the number of positions affected by this plan.
Geographic refocusing
This project should simplify the organization of the structure in France, mainly in terms of support functions (marketing, compliance, etc.). This plan also envisages a geographical refocus of activities in the European region with the abandonment of certain countries, and this logically has consequences for certain functions of France.
The consumer credit industry is being hit hard by the sudden increase in the cost of refinancing (around 4%), which, given usury rates, cannot be immediately reflected in loan rates to individuals, not to mention the loss of purchasing power. increase in the number of households and outstanding debt (average cost of risk 150 basis points). It is also a highly competitive industry and the emergence of fintechs such as Younited has somewhat disrupted the market and customer experience. However, until now it was known that consumer credit was a very profitable activity.
But the scale of the restructuring may be surprising: it affects almost 18% of the workforce in France. Operating in many countries, the entire division has a total of 19,000 employees, 5,000 of whom are in France. On the other hand, the recently acquired Floa bank, which specializes in split payments, was not affected by this restructuring.
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