(Bloomberg) --

Danske Bank A/S says it has no choice but to cut hundreds of jobs across the organization as it struggles to save money.

Denmark’s biggest lender, which is dealing with a spike in compliance costs amid U.S. and European investigations into money laundering allegations, is getting rid of 400 positions, “primarily within staff and back-office functions,” it said on Thursday.

Danske has found other jobs within the organization for 110 of the 400 people. The bank also said that 60 people have agreed to leave voluntarily while the remaining 230 have been laid off.

Karsten Breum, Danske’s head of human resources, said the bank is “taking a number of initiatives to adjust and simplify parts of our organization.” Cutting jobs is “not easy,” but “a necessary part of our efforts to reduce costs in order to ensure that we remain competitive.”

The bank admitted in late 2018 that it failed to properly screen about 200 billion euros ($219 billion) in non-resident flows at its Estonian operations, and said that much of that figure was suspicious. A number of Danske’s top executives have since had preliminary criminal charges brought against them, including the former chief executive, and Danske is bracing for hefty fines. Its share price has slumped by about half since the beginning of 2018.

Danske is getting rid of about 120 people in Denmark, 60 in Finland and 44 in Lithuania. In Sweden and Norway, the figure is “less than ten” in each country, Danske said.

(Adds details on job cuts in third, fifth paragraph)

To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Wienberg in Copenhagen at cwienberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net

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