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BLOOMBERG
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) said it plans to cut as much as 2% of its full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in the coming quarter after a surge in expenses weighed on third-quarter results.
Non-interest expenses climbed 23% to C$7.86 billion ($5.8 billion) for the fiscal third quarter, compared with the C$7.31 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Royal Bank’s moves to trim headcount will come after it ended the quarter with 93,753 employees after it shed about 645 jobs in the period.
“The FTE reductions are a component of an overall expense reduction exercise that’s much more significant,” Chief Executive Officer Dave McKay said.
“It is part of a bigger program and a more ambitious program that you’ll hear more from us over the coming quarter.”
RBC and its rivals have turned to trimming their workforces as a way to cut costs while central-bank activity around the world boosts interest expenses and crimps margins industrywide.
Royal Bank’s wealth-management division bore the brunt of the reductions in the second quarter, according to filings. The unit’s headcount plummeted by almost 1,300 in the quarter, when the company sold a European asset-servicing business to a joint venture of Credit Agricole and Banco Santander.