ABN Amro plans to cut 2,400 jobs worldwide

ABN Amro Holding NV will do so to make additional annual savings of 150 million euros.

ABN Amro Holding NV, the largest Dutch bank, said it plans to cut 2,400 jobs worldwide, or about 2.4 percent of its workforce, to make additional annual savings of 150 million euros (186 million US dollar).

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First-quarter net income at the Amsterdam-based bank rose 12 per cent to 1 billion euros, ABN Amro also said.

The job cuts will be implemented from this year through 2008 and ABN Amro will take a charge of 125 million euros to 150 million euros in the second quarter.

The reductions and related savings come on top of the 2,850 job cuts Chief Executive Rijkman Groenink announced in December 2004.

The bank had beaten analysts' earnings estimates in six of the past eight quarters.

ABN Amro made more than half its profit in 2005 from consumer banking and lending to small- and mid-sized clients, 6 per cent of profit from private banking and 4 per cent from asset management.