ABN Amro to cut 900 North American jobs [View All]

New York, Dec 29: ABN Amro Bank NV, the biggest Dutch bank and parent of Chicago's LaSalle Bank Corp., on Thursday announced plans to cut about 900 North American jobs by the middle of 2007 to reduce costs amid growing competition.

The cuts will total 5 percent of the North American work force, and occur across nearly all areas of the bank and at all major locations, Amsterdam-based ABN Amro said in a statement. They follow a 6 percent decline in third-quarter profit.

"It's part of an effort for us to focus," spokesman Shawn Platt said. "Competition is tough." Most cuts will be in the United States and Canada, and employees learned of the plans earlier Thursday, Platt said. It was not clear how many jobs might be eliminated by attrition. ABN Amro has slashed several thousand jobs since 2003 but struggled to keep costs down as loan losses increase.

Though third-quarter profit totaled 1.14 billion euros
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LaSalle Bank Will Slash 500 Chicago Area Jobs


(CBS) CHICAGO Thousands of LaSalle Bank employees in Chicago will ring in the new year wondering if they will have a job in 2007.

CBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports the bank's parent company announced widespread layoffs are on the horizon in an industry already facing some tough times.

LaSalle is Chicago's second largest bank and employs 9,000 people. But the bank's parent company, ABN AMRO, announced it will slash the Chicago area workforce by 5 percent next year.

That means almost 500 Chicago area jobs will be cut by the summer. The CEO of one outplacement firm says he's not surprised.

"We've seen over 40,000 job cuts announced this year by U.S. banks," said John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/local_story_362225358.html