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BANKING

Spain’s Banco Popular axes over 2,600 jobs

Spain's struggling Banco Popular said on Monday that it has slashed over 2,600 jobs, about 18 percent of its workforce, in the latest round of cost cutting by a Spanish lender.

Spain's Banco Popular axes over 2,600 jobs
The bank plans to close around 300 of its 2,000 branches in Spain as part of a restructuring plan. Photo: AFP

The restructuring of its workforce through voluntary departures, first announced in September, will cost €375 million ($397 million), the Madrid-based bank said in a statement.

Banco Popular said its offer of early retirement had been accepted by 2,637 employees, roughly 90 percent of them in Spain.   

The lender had 14,848 employees at the end of September and the staff cuts are expected to save the bank between €175 million and €200 million per year, the statement said.

“This agreement aims to improve profitability and efficiency,” the statement added.

Banco Popular, Spain's sixth largest bank by market capitalisation, in June raised €2.5 billion in a share issue to clean up its balance sheet.

Like other Spanish lenders, it is making a major push to sell off real estate assets, including repossessed homes, which are clogging up its balance sheet and eating into earnings.

Banco Popular in October reported a third quarter net profit of just €416,000. It made provisions on bad loans earlier this year of €4.7 billion.

Spanish banks, which slimmed down after a decade-long property boom went bust in 2008, are once again closing branches and slashing jobs as their profitability is hit by stiff competition.

Santander, Spain's biggest bank, announced earlier this year it plans to close 450 smaller branches and cut 1,400 jobs in Spain, about five percent of the staff in its home market, through voluntary departures.

Barcelona-based CaixaBank, Spain's third-largest bank, plans to cut 3,000 jobs, mainly through early retirement, as it seeks to trim its salary costs.    

Spain has the densest bank branch network in western Europe, with 8.6 branches per 10,000 residents, according to consultancy Roland Berger.    

The average in the entire European Union is five branches per 10,000 residents.

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BANKING

Card over cash? Why Germany is seeing a new payment preference

Cash has long been king in Germany, with many smaller retailers refusing to join the rest of the world in adopting contactless payment systems. But card-based payments are on the rise, as recent stats about Girocard use reveal.

Card over cash? Why Germany is seeing a new payment preference

Germany has long been a very cash-based country, occasionally to the dismay of frustrated tourists at the Döner shop.

A few German phrases express the people’s love of physical money. There’s ‘only cash is true’ – Nur Bares ist Wahres. Or Bargeld lacht, literally meaning cash laughs, but used to imply that cash is what’s wanted, similar to ‘cash is king’ in English.

But the classic German preference for cash appears to be evolving, as the use of girocards is growing, even for small transactions.

How are girocards being used?

Girocard, an ATM and debit card service offered by German Banks, was designed to allow customers to use virtually all German ATMs and, increasingly, to make purchases at businesses.

READ ALSO: Ask an expert – Why is cash still so popular in Germany, and is it changing?

Last year, consumers in Germany used their Girocard more often than ever before for cashless payments. A total of €7.48 billion payment transactions with the plastic card were counted – 11.5 percent more than in the previous record year 2022, according to figures published by the Frankfurt-based institution Euro Card Systems.

Whether at the bakery, petrol station or supermarket, customers are increasingly pulling out their cards at the checkout, even for smaller amounts. As a result, the average amount paid with the Girocard fell from €42.34 to €40.69 within a year. 

The rise of card payments in Germany

Contactless payment, which is possible with girocards and credit cards that have an NFC chip, got a boost during the Covid pandemic, as retailers promoted it for hygiene reasons. 

But the use of card payments has continued to grow in Germany since then, boosted partly by the increasing use of girocards.

Promoting the use of girocards, some German banks have expanded their cards’ functions: Sparkassen, Volksbanken, or Raiffeisenbanken offer girocards for the digital wallet, for example.

Banks want to continue upgrading the payment card with further applications. For example, a project is being tested which would add an age verification function to girocards that would be useful when a customer is buying cigarettes.

On the retail side, it’s clear why the Girocard is preferred to other debit options.

“We see that debit cards from international providers cost up to four times more,” Ulrich Binnebößel, Head of the Payment Systems & Logistics Department at the German Retail Association (HDE) told DPA.

What’s the difference between the Girocard and other debit?

The Girocard is a strictly German phenomenon. It can be seen as the latest iteration of the EC card, which was created to consolidate payment systems following the unification of former East and West Germany.

In 1991 different debit card systems, including Eurocheque guarantee cards from former West Germany and Geldkarte ATMs from former East Germany, were unified into Eurocheque cards.

Then in 2001, the Eurocheque system was disbanded, but German banks continued to use the EC logo for “electronic cash’” cards, or EC cards. In 2007, the German Banking Industry Committee introduced Girocard as a common name for electronic cash and the German ATM network.

Girocards are only issued and accepted in Germany, so if you want to get one of your own, you’ll have to join a German bank, and shell out those notorious German banking fees.

READ ALSO: Why it’s almost impossible to find a free bank account in Germany

Alternatively, you can get by with internationally accepted debit cards provided by a bank in your home country, or otherwise by joining an app-based European banking service like N26. 

But be warned, without the Girocard in hand, at some smaller retailers you may be told, “Leider nur Bargeld oder EC-Karte.

With reporting by DPA

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