Covid-19: Standard Chartered To Reduce Workforce As Profit Drops.
Given the extreme economic pressures relating to covid-19 crisis, Standard Chartered is planning to cut several hundred jobs globally in the coming month as profit continue to dip.
The London-headquartered lender which recently posted a 33 percent drop in profits for first half 2020 would be retrenching its staffs across London, New York and Singapore.
It was however reported that employees will be paid until the end of the year, in addition to receiving a severance package.
Currently, the lender employs around 85,000 employees and it has drafted a list of several hundred employees who will be eliminated as part of its cutback programme.
It was also reported last month that it will resume a plan to reduce its workforce by 35,000, having originally said it would pause redundancies.
Job cuts at the lender had been put on hold early on during the Covid-19 outbreak, with the bank saying it did not “intend to make any layoffs because of the pandemic.”
The bank in a statement said “A small number of roles are being made redundant in line with our commitment to transforming the bank and ensuring its future competitiveness.”
Standard Chartered has undergone a radical revamp that’s shrunk middle management and invested billions of dollars in improving its technology.
Group chief executive Bill Winters said in a statement, “Low interest rates and depressed oil prices continue to be headwinds and we expect new waves of Covid-19 related challenge in the coming quarters but I am confident that our resilience and client franchise will see us through.”Expenses excluding the UK bank levy are usually higher in the second half, but we continue to target being below $10bn in 2020.
“Given the more challenging external environment we have started to implement new sustainable efficiency initiatives with the intent to stay below $10bn in 2021 as well”.
Given the extreme economic pressures relating to the persistence of COVID-19, partially addressed through the efficacy of government support measures, it is not possible to reliably predict the quantum or timing of future impairments.
“We anticipate that impairments in the second half will be lower than those recorded in the first half”.
Banks and other businesses in Nigeria are also not spared from the economic woes occasioned by the virus attack. While some have restructured the workforce, cutting down on staff strength, Others have slashed salaries to stay afloat in addition to accessing palliatives from several government schemes initiated for such.
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