Amsterdam, (IANS) : Dutch bank ING said on Monday that it would scrap nearly 7,000 jobs to move to a digital platform which would save $1.01 billion in annual costs by 2021.

The measures are part of a wider overhaul in which ING aims to converge its banking operations in Europe and move toward one digital platform, in the next couple of years.

It said it would invest 800 million euros ($896 million) to improve its digital services, The Wall Street Journal reported.

ING’s Chief Executive Ralph Hamers said the latest measures are made “from a position of strength,” referring to previous restructuring plans that bolstered ING’s capital position and made it less complex.

The lender said that the equivalent of 3,150 full-time jobs will be lost in Belgium by 2021, close to a third of the total in the country while in the Netherlands, 2,300 jobs are to be shed, equivalent to about 15 per cent of full-time staff.

Rik Vandenberghe, Chief Executive of the bank’s Belgian arm, said that the decision was “a shock for a lot of people and was not an easy decision”.