MADRID: Santander plans to close up to 1,000 branches in Spain and cut 4,000 jobs, or around 14 percent of its total workforce in its home market, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

Santander declined to comment.

The sources said another 1,000 staff would move on to different jobs within its Spanish branches.

Banks across Europe are struggling to cope with record low interest rates, and the economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic is forcing a focus on further cost cuts.

At the end of October, Santander earmarked an extra 1 billion euros in cost savings in Europe by 2022, and said it was planning to reduce staff in Spain, Portugal, Britain and Poland.

That was on top of 1 billion euros in savings the group was planning in Europe by 2020, a target initially set out for the mid-term.