The bank does not expect layoffs will be needed by the end of 2013, but has nevertheless prepared a programme just in case.

The announcement comes after media reports at the beginning of the month that Slovenia's biggest bank was to sack between 650 and 700 of its employees and close down a third of its offices.

Apart from trimming the staff numbers from the current 3,550 in the core bank and some 7,000 in the group around it, NLB plans to gradually close down some of its 150 offices around Slovenia, based on operation analysis and impact assessment.

NLB did not specify its employment plans for the entire group, as it said everything depended on the dynamics of closing down or selling of non-strategic branches and adapting of promising strategic ones.

The first three-month stage of the bank's reorganisation is to get in full swing in July.

The planned reorganisation aims at making the bank more efficient, strategically oriented and adaptable to the needs of the clients and the changes in economic conditions.

The bank said it was aware that merely cutting costs and tackling non-performing loans, which through impairments and provisions are the main reason for NLB's loss in the last two years, would not improve results, for which they said swift, decisive and deliberated action was needed.

Therefore, the bank also plans considerable optimisations in several respects, including a strong reduction of the levels of decision making, speeding up and easing the whole decision-making process.