The job cuts are part of a massive cost-cutting exercise, as the bank aims to save DKK1 billion ($180.98 million) over the coming year. Danske, which has been working hard to improve on its equity in the recent year, said that expenses “must be brought down”. The news hit Danish newstands after employees were informed early this morning, coincidently, the same day as the Danish local elections.

The move was first announced in October, when the bank revealed its quarterly results for 2013. A change in strategy, focusing on the group’s private banking units rather than its retail business, has proven beneficial to the overall finances of Danske, yet this was not enough to avoid the redundancies, which are the first since new chief executive Thomas Borgen assumed his role as head of the bank in September.

In the financial statement, the bank said that it would “cut costs on non-customer related activities, considerably”.

The bank is hoping that by exempting the branch personnel, it will be able to turn around the customer exodus, which in the first nine months of 2013, amounts to 94.000 customers. Read more about this and the bank’s change in strategy, in our recent analysis on Danske.

Danske Bank has reduced it’s total number of employees considerably over recent years. At the end of 2011 the bank had 21.320 employees. By 30 October 2013 that number had been reduced to 20.039, with yet more redundancies to come.