The unions were told about the restructuring plans at the end of last week and the leader of the banking unions for southern Portugal, Rui Riso, said the move was because of a change to the business model connected with a reduction in employees worldwide by Haitong.

Most of the redundancies are expected to be made in the UK.

Lusa contacted an official source at the bank, which has about 400 employees, but is still waiting for a reply.