By Reuters Staff
1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a logo of the Standard Chartered Kenya bank in their main office in Nairobi, Kenya September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner/File Photo
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Standard Chartered is likely to reduce its office space by a third in the next three to four years, Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford told Bloomberg TV in an interview.
Earlier, StanChart posted a fall of 57% in annual profit for 2020, but announced a dividend and share buyback and reaffirmed its long-term profit goals.
Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Lender paused restructuring in 2020 because of the pandemic
Standard Chartered Plc is preparing further job cuts as the emerging markets lender continues a restructuring that was postponed by the onset of the pandemic.
The London-headquartered bank is expected to cut several hundred staff next month across its global businesses, with the reductions focused on more junior employees, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank has about 85,000 employees around the world.
Job cuts restarted in the second half of last year as Standard Chartered, like other major lenders, faced pressure to curtail costs to cope with the impact of the pandemic. It’s one of a handful of large European banks that have resumed job reductions in the past months including HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG.
The agreement with serviced office network IWG allows the London-based bank s 95,000 employees access to 3,500 offices around the world for a trial period of 12 months.