A retail business unit of Standard Chartered Bank in the UAE has let go of about 100 staff as the lender increasingly digitises its services.
The third-party business unit of the bank has made the job cuts in recent weeks, a bank official said on Tuesday, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We are continuously reviewing our businesses and accelerating our shift towards digital and consumer preferences,” a spokesperson of the bank said in a statement, declining to comment on specific details.
Lenders in the UAE, the second-biggest Arab economy, are investing heavily on digitising their services, cutting paper trails and human interactions to reduce costs and boost efficiency. Mashreq Bank, the Dubai lender controlled by the Al Ghurair family, plans to spend at least Dh500 million over the next five years on digitisation, as it looks to shut half of its branches in the UAE this year.
Speaking to the The National in September 2017, Mr Al Ghurair said the bank would cut about 10 per cent of its workforce of more than 4,000 as part of its drive.
Other banks in the UAE, including Dubai’s biggest lender, Emirates NBD, are also pivoting towards providing services digitally, with the bank spending Dh1bn on on its digital drive.
National Bank of Fujairah has also earmarked Dh160m to Dh200m for new initiatives, with about 80 per cent of that being spent on digitisation, its chief executive told The National earlier this year.
