StanChart To Lay Off 200 As Pandemic Takes Toll On Profits

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has announced plans to lay off 200 employees in a restructuring move.

According to a brief sent to the Banking Insurance & Finance Union, the targeted staffers are those in the management level and the unionisable staff.

The bank attributes the retrenchment to a digital transformation strategy that started in 2016 that will make certain roles redundant.

“In the circumstance, the bank intends to declare redundant the employees whose roles fall off as a result of the restructuring. The impacted employees who are both in management and unionisable cadre are 200 in the retail banking, corporate banking, operations, technology and support departments,” the Bank wrote.

In the financial year ended December 2019, the bank spent Ksh7.4 billion on its 1,397 workers. The 200 represent 14.3 per cent of the current total workforce.

The employees will be retrenched by the end of this year.

In the last five years, the lender has fired over 600 employees in the digitization exercise.

The bank has restructured loans worth Ksh22 billion, representing 16.4 per cent of its loan book in the half year ended June. Its net profit in the review period dropped 31.2 per cent to Ksh3.2 billion.

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