The Swiss No. 1 banking institute plans to eliminate dozens of jobs at its Luxembourg branch – with some of them being moved to the new back offices in Eastern Europe.
In the aftermath of Brexit, Luxembourg has held hopes that it might profit from a relocation of banking jobs from London. The financial center of the Grand Duchy has to cope with a disappearance of jobs itself.
UBS, the Swiss banking giant, is planning to cut dozens of jobs at its branch in Luxembourg, according to a report by the local «Paperjam» Web journal. Union representatives said that some 60 employees in the wealth management unit were affected by the cuts. The bank cited economic reasons for the measures, according to the report.
Lower Labor Costs
Part of the jobs cut in Luxembourg will be relocated to Poland, according to the union. That's where the back office for UBS Luxembourg will be based in future. UBS has back-office units in Krakow and Wroclaw. The move is part of a bigger plan to move back-office divisions to countries with lower labor costs.
UBS told «Paperjam» that the cuts affected only middle- and back-office units and no positions at the sales front.
Savings Across Wealth Management Division
Juerg Zeltner, the wealth management boss at UBS, in May announced a savings program aimed at reduced costs by hundreds of millions of francs, with job cuts being part and parcel of the exercise – in particular in jobs away from the customer front.
Luxembourg is feeling the effect – and not for the first time. UBS cut 30 jobs in the country in 2013. Currently, it has some 420 people on its payroll in the Grand Duchy.
