By Amin Kef Sesay
Early this year, it was published on the world leading business media Blomberg that Standard Chartered Bank is preparing further job cuts in 2021 as the emerging market lender continues a restructuring that was postponed by the onset of the pandemic.
The London-headquartered bank is expected to cut several hundred jobs this year across its global businesses, with the reductions focused on more junior employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank has about 85,000 employees around the world.
Focused on markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the lender has faced pressure from investors to reduce costs to improve returns to boost its share price.
Under Chief Executive Officer, Bill Winters, who recently celebrated his fifth anniversary at the bank, Standard Chartered has undergone a radical revamp that has shrunk middle Management and invested billions of dollars in improving its technology.
According to an article that was published by the world leading business media Blomberg written by Harry Wilson and Ambereen Choudhury they indicate that in July, the company said it was making a “small number of roles” redundant. Since then, several Senior Managers have left, including Didier von Daeniken, the Head of its private banking arm. Its shares have fallen 31% in the past year.
It was noted that the job cuts restarted in the second half of last year as Standard Chartered, like other major lenders, faced pressure to curtail costs to cope with the impact of the pandemic and the Bank had reported its full-year financial results in February.
The publication revealed that the Chief Financial Officer, Andy Halford said in October that the firm needed to improve returns and its goal of achieving a 10% return on equity had been pushed back by COVID-19. The lender has said it will consider resuming dividend payments to investors after the Bank of England started to relax pandemic-related curbs in December.
The latest job cuts come as Standard Chartered prepares for the eventual departure of Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters.
What Does this mean for its West African branches especially the Sierra Leone Franchise?
This medium is closely monitoring this development and will provide more details in subsequent publications.
