Santander Bank to lay off 77 workers in Reading

Santander Bank N.A. will lay off 77 employees at its facility at 450 Penn St., Reading – job losses it believes will be permanent.

The financial institution announced the move in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

A federal law, the WARN Act protects workers, their families and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.

Santander said in the filing that job separations should start on or about June 30; because it’s an ongoing transition process, the layoffs may come in stages.

The employees affected are involved in various aspects of the bank’s operations and call center teams, and all were notified April 17. None are unionized.

Asked for further comment, the company said this decision is the result of changes to streamline the bank’s processes and its operating model, with changes being implemented over the next year.

There are no other impacts beyond customer-facing call center teams, Santander said.

The company is actively working to connect as many affected employees as possible with new roles. In accordance with its policies, severance-eligible employees will receive outplacement services.

Santander Bank remains committed to all its customers, the company said, including those in the region. The bank serves customers in 33 branches across central Pennsylvania; no customer service impacts are expected as a result of the layoffs.

Employees affected who complete service through their end date will be eligible for severance benefits, including severance pay based on years of service and subsidized COBRA coverage as well as the above-mentioned career outplacement assistance.

“Team member reductions are never easy for either the team member or for Santander,” the WARN letter said. “We continue to make every effort to minimize the impact and ease the transition … .”

Santander Bank N.A. is one of the country’s largest retail and commercial banks with $99 billion in assets, according to its website. The bank’s nearly 9,000 employees and more than 2 million customers are primarily located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island,

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander S.A.

In February 2022, Santander announced that it was discontinuing its residential mortgage and home equity originations segment in the U.S.

Paula Wolf is a freelance writer