
HSBC/BLOOMBERG
HSBC Holdings has laid off about 40 bankers in the UAE and Emirates NBD is cutting around 100 jobs, as banks in the Arab world's second-biggest economy reduce costs, reported Reuters.
HSBC's redundancies came after the London-based bank reported a sharp fall in earnings and warned of a costly restructuring, as interim Chief Executive Noel Quinn seeks to tackle its problems head-on in his bid for the full-time role.
The lender has about 3,000 staff in the UAE, part of its nearly 10,000 workforces in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region.
Similarly, the cuts at Dubai's Emirates NBD came in areas such as consumer sales and liabilities and the cuts are said to be part of cost-cutting and rationalising to drive efficiencies in a challenging market.
The Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE) data shows local banks have laid off 446 people at the end of September 2019 from the same period a year ago, while foreign banks have added staff in the same period.
According to CBUAE, staff at local banks account for over 80 per cent of the 35,518 banking employees in the country.
The merger between Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Union Commercial Bank and Al Hilal Bank resulted in hundreds of people being made redundant.
Additionally, Commercial Bank International in September 2019 said that it would offer voluntary retirement to employees, which resulted in over 100 job cuts, while, Standard Chartered's local unit cut more than 100 jobs in its retail business in the UAE in September 2019.
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