Sovereign to Increase Banking Jobs in Rhode Island

Posted on June 16, 2010

Sovereign Bank, a financial institution with offices in eight East coast states, has announced they will be hiring and increasing the number of banking jobs in Rhode Island.

The bank, which recently moved its HQ from Pennsylvania to Boston, plans on hiring around 200 bankers to focus on small business ventures.

Ten employees in Rhode Island will be hired for various branches.

The bank specialists will focus on building relationships with small businesses. They’re marketing it as a business expansion program and are making a pool of $50 million available for small businesses. These are much-needed funds in today’s economy.

Assets will be able to be purchased at a very competitive rate, according to the company.

In January 2009, Sovereign was acquired by Madrid-based Banco Santander SA. After the acquisition, they were forced to make several company-wide eliminations and restructure their employee base. About 1,000 jobs were cut. Total, Sovereign shrank its workforce by almost 3,000 when unfilled positions were taken into account along with the layoffs.

The chairman of the bank remains optimistic about profits this year compared to last year despite the European financial crisis, as reported by Bloomberg.com.

Sovereign currently has around 9,300 full time employees.