Italy's largest bank UniCredit plans to cut 8,000 jobs and shutter 500 branches in an attempt to boost profits and shave 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) in costs across Western Europe. 

It is also planning to seek regulatory approval for a 2 billion euro ($2.2 billion) share buyback, the lender's first in over a decade. 

The bank disclosed the news in its latest 2020-2023 business plan on Tuesday.

The 8,000 jobs will amount to nearly 10% of its workforce. UniCredit did not disclose any specifics, but most of the cuts will be made in Italy. The bank has 28 million customers across Europe.

According to a report in the Financial Times, in the last year and a half, UniCredit has explored mergers and acquisitions with European challenger banks Germany's Commerzbank and France's Société Générale. However, the bank's CEO Jean Pierre Mustier denied the speculation. He said the bank preferred to focus on organic growth.

"No M&A, how can I be more precise . . . We prefer share buybacks to M&A," he told FT. "We might look at small bolt-on acquisitions, most likely in central and eastern Europe where we have a growth plan, but most likely nothing in western Europe."

Meanwhile, UniCredit's move to cut so many jobs has drawn ire from unions. Paola De Micheli, Italy's transport minister, said Thursday the planned cuts were unacceptable.

According to a report in the New York Times, she told local radio Radio24: "We cannot accept that companies which make profits in Italy announce redundancies without proposing any alternatives." She is urging the government to intervene.