Standard Chartered global job freeze hits Kenya unit

Standard Chartered has frozen the hiring of new staff or replacement of exiting employees in a move that also affects the Kenyan subsidiary.

The London-based bank says it has already sacked 2,000 employees, as part of a global restructuring that will result in 4,000 job cuts.

StanChart however declined to disclose how many staff will be laid off in Kenya, promising to reveal the numbers at a later date.

“We expect to reduce a further 2,000 jobs internationally— primarily by not replacing staff when they leave,” Standard Chartered Bank said in a response to Business Daily queries.

“We are unable to provide a geographic breakdown of these numbers, (until) stakeholders have been engaged and the various regulatory and internal procedures have been completed,” the bank said.

StanChart said the job cuts would help save $200 million of the lender’s $400 million planned cost savings for this year.

StanChart Kenya’s cost-to-income ratio stood at 40 per cent at the end of 2013 — making it Kenya’s most efficient big lender— followed by Equity (48.5 per cent), CfC Stanbic (50.7 per cent), KCB Bank (51.7 per cent) and Barclays at 56 per cent.

The sackings at StanChart follow a trend by Kenyan lenders seeking to contain ballooning staff costs, by turning to technology.

Co-op Bank last month retrenched 160 employees, most of them senior managers.