Komercni banka to make quarter of staff redundant

One of the three largest Czech banks, Komercni banka, has announced another round of massive redundancies. The bank is planning to lay off one quarter of its staff by 2004, the bank's general director Alexis Juan said on Friday. At the end of 2001, the bank had over 9200 employees after it had laid off some 15 hundred of them the year before.

At the same time, the bank said it hoped to grow 5 percent annually in the next two years while reducing operating costs at the same pace. It would also like to attract 50,000 new customers a year.