Standard Chartered begins second round of layoffs

17 November 2016

The UK-headquartered lender is cutting jobs from its UAE retail banking operations

Standard Chartered is cutting more than 100 jobs from its UAE operations in the second round of layoffs as the UK-headquartered lender streamlines its operations and cut costs, according to people familiar with the matter.

The bank is laying off senior-to-mid-tier executives from its retail operations, mostly back-office and support staff, the people said asking not to be identified as the information is not public. Some senior staff have already been made redundant. The final tally of job cuts could be anywhere between 100 and 150 and the bank plans to serve all the termination of service notices before 15 December, the sources added.

“We are making organisational changes in the UAE Retail Clients business to position ourselves for growth as we accelerate the switch to digital to be a leaner, more efficient bank,” a Standard Chartered spokesman said in response to emailed questions from MEED.

The spokesman added it is “not a cost cutting exercise” and the bank continuously reviews its business to service clients efficiently.

The move comes almost a year after the lender laid off 100 employees as part of its global overhaul of management to save up to $2.9bn in costs. MEED in November 2015 reported the cuts which were carried out across its UAE operations.

Sources said that the bank had cut about 10 per cent of its workforce in the first round of layoffs in the UAE, the commercial and trading hub of the region. The spokesman didn’t provide the details about how many of the employees it has so far sacked.

Standard Chartered is not the only lender in the UAE that has cut staff to streamline operations and to lower the cost base amid sluggish economy and slowing growth after oil prices slumped more than 50 per cent from their mid-2014 peak of $115 a barrel.

UK’s Barclays has reduced its staff by about 150 in its UAE’s corporate banking department, as part of a wider restructuring of its business, while HSBC, Europe’s biggest lender has cut more than 150 jobs from its banking operations in the country.

Local lenders are equally affected. Emirates Islamic, the Shariah-complaint arm of Emirates NBD (ENBD), the biggest lender in Dubai, has cut more than 100 jobs, while Union National Bank dismissed about 50 people in August.

MEED on 4 April reported that the EI had cut about 200 jobs as part of a wider organisational restructuring. Most of the affected employees in the first round of layoffs were from bank’s sales force and majority were given their termination of service notice on 31 March, sources told MEED at the time.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), one of the top sharia-complaint lender in the UAE, has slashed the headcount by more than 200. Dubai-based Mashreq Bank, the oldest lender in the UAE, also reduced its corporate banking staff by about 5 per cent, MEED reported in May. Shuaa Capital, First Gulf Bank (FGB) and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah are among the other local lenders which have laid off staff to save costs.

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