Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has announced that it will let go of around 400 of its employees as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the media reported.
The bank has decided to cut costs amid the lower oil prices and the Covid-19 crisis.
Earlier, the bank announced that it would not lay off its employees despite the crisis, however, pressure was mounting on ADCB, which is UAE’s third-biggest lender.
During the month of March, ADCB said in a statement, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.
According to reports in the media, ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go.
It is also speculated that the bank is looking to close around 20 of its branches in the UAE.
Earlier this year, ADCB reported a fall of 84 percent in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.
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A study carried out by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA) highlighted an increase in the number of users of digital banking services to 90 percent.
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