European Banks: Hiring or Firing?

With Europe's leading banks still largely in a process of recovery from the financial crisis, letting staff go has been far more common over the last few years than expanding headcounts has. As our chart shows, from 2014 to 2017, most of Europe's leading banks have decreased the number of employees on the payroll. Royal Bank of Scotland has been the biggest culprit, with a fall of 34.5 percent - going from 108,700 to 71,200. There are some notable exceptions though, with two of Spain's biggest players - BBVA and Santander - increasing by 20.6 and 9.1 percent respectively. France's BNP Paribas also saw growth to the tune of 5.4 percent.