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| Thousands of ABN AMRO Mortgage Group employees will be laid off as a result of the merger with Citigroup. The job cuts are unrelated to the 17,000 layoffs announced by Citigroup earlier this week.
Approximately 1,700 positions will be eliminated through the first half of 2008, Citigroup spokesman Mark Rodgers told MortgageDaily.com. The job cuts are due to closing of several ABN AMRO sites and the transition of the unit’s headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., to a wholesale operation Rodgers emphasized that the 200 headquarters job cuts will be replicated once the transition is complete, which will push the staff number there back up to around 850. Overall, ABN AMRO has 2,500 employees. “We’re combining businesses and we’re looking for efficiency,” the spokesman said. “For example, in Ann Arbor, we’re going to try to take the best technologies of ABN AMRO and the best of Citigroup’s to provide superior products and services and wholesale support.” Job reductions related to site closings will occur in Jacksonville, Boca Raton, and Sunrise, Fla.; Troy and Madison Heights, Mich.; and Norridge, Ill., according to Rodgers. The primarily customer service sites included record keeping, customer retention and direct sales functions. About 790 layoffs will be in Florida, 570 in Michigan and the remaining 100 or so in Illinois. Most of the affected employees were notified of the layoffs yesterday in town-hall-like meetings, but others will be notified individually next week, Rodgers said. The workers will have the option of either Citigroup or ABN AMRO severance packages. The initial impact of layoffs is relatively small, as the transition of most site operations will be completed by yearend and some through the first half of next year, leaving time for employees to explore other opportunities, Rodgers said. “We have opportunities in other nearby sites that we’re growing,” where “we’ll be encouraging employees to search for jobs,” he added. The ABN AMRO cuts are not related to17,000 worldwide layoffs announced at Citigroup Wednesday. ABN AMRO wasn’t acquired until March 1, Rodgers said. “The restructuring plan was already underway.” Citigroup’s reductions were the result of a structural expense review. The worldwide cuts were across all businesses, including the mortgage business, Citigroup spokeswoman Liz Fogarty said. She could not provide a figure for mortgage headcount reductions because the company was not “breaking down” layoff numbers by business. Citigroup’s primary mortgage operation, CitiMortgage, which now also includes the operations of CitiFinancial Mortgage, has approximately 8,700 employees, Rodgers said. ABN AMRO announced in December it would lay off 900 employees this year — or 5 percent of its staff. Those reductions affected LaSalle Bank Corp. and its subsidiaries and ABN AMRO’s global businesses operating in the United States. Two months prior to that, ABN AMRO told MortgageDaily.com it would layoff 200 servicing employees by the end of July 2007. Related: ABN AMRO Layoffs Layoffs at ABN AMRO |
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