Barclays Chief Executive Jeremy Awori. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Barclays Bank of Kenya’s staff count dropped by 171 workers last
year, joining a long list of ...
lenders that have either retrenched or failed to replace retiring employees in the wake of interest rates cap law.
lenders that have either retrenched or failed to replace retiring employees in the wake of interest rates cap law.
The lender had 2,591 employees in Kenya as at
December 2016 compared to 2,762 workers a year earlier, according to the
bank’s latest annual report. Staff costs at Barclays Bank grew 4.99 per
cent to Sh9.77 billion last year compared to Sh9.3 billion in 2015.
“With
the announcement of the Barclays Plc sell-down in Barclays Africa Group
Ltd (BAGL) and the introduction of interest rate caps, many employees
were concerned about their future at the bank,” the bank says in the
2016 annual report.
KCB Group, Kenya’s biggest lender
by assets, reported that 223 employees left the bank last year, which
saw the bank incur a Sh186 million bill in staff restructuring costs.
The bank has announced another round of layoffs this year.
Nearly
a dozen Kenyan banks including StanChart, Bank of Africa, Sidian,
Family Bank, First Community Bank, NIC, and Ecobank have turned to job
cuts as a strategy to trim costs as the new law capping interest rates
has eaten into banks’ margins.
Barclays Africa, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, owns a 68.5 per cent stake in Barclays Kenya.
The
bank’s employee headcount stood at 3,072 in 2012 and has steadily been
shrinking over the years, as the lender turns to digital technology to
automate operations and cut costs. “The financial services industry is
becoming increasingly competitive with more reliance on technology and
innovation as key differentiators for service delivery,” says Barclays.
Barclays
Kenya in 2004 ended a three-year staff retrenchment which trimmed the
bank’s workforce by about 420 employees at a cost of Sh1.7 billion.
Full-year
after-tax earnings dropped to Sh7.39 billion in December 2016 from
Sh8.4 billion in 2015, which Barclays blamed on a “challenging operating
environment with significant regulatory changes”.
The
job cuts have seen Barclays Kenya’s cost to income ratio remain at 53
per cent last tear – same as 2015 - compared to 56 per cent in 2013.
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