ANZ National to cut management jobs here

ANZ National Bank yesterday confirmed it is planning to cut management jobs in New Zealand in response to the financial crisis, but it is too early to say how many.

Last week it was reported the ANZ National's Australian parent may cut as many as 3000-3500 staff across the group as it overhauled its middle management, but the bank said the figures published were overstated.

An ANZ National spokeswoman yesterday said plans for the group's "new global business model with a simplified organisational structure and fewer management roles" were now "beginning to crystallise for the New Zealand business".

"This is happening across the banking sector and is in part a response to the softening economic environment. We can't comment on how many roles may be affected because we are still working through that process with our staff."

Andrew Campbell of bank workers' union Finsec said it was understood there would be relatively little effect in New Zealand.

"We've had assurances that New Zealand has less tiers of management so the impact wouldn't be as significant, and primarily would be in corporate headquarters."

The cuts are separate from a round of redundancies for customer-service staff in ANZ National's branches announced in September.