Will local banks start slashing in 2009?

8 December 2008

2 minute read

Will local banks start slashing in 2009?

With multi-national banks trimming headcount in the GCC, some big-hitting local banks have stepped forward with reassurances that they won't be making redundancies. However, some think this is slightly optimistic and even if they do hold fire, recruitment is set to tail off going into next year.

The likes of Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Union National Bank told Gulf News that not only are they ruling out redundancies, but they're continuing to recruit new people.

"We haven't made any lay-offs and there are no immediate plans to do that," said Sanjay Uppal, chief financial officer at Emirates NBD.

Such bullish public statements may reassure local bank workers, but off-the-record HR professionals are slightly more candid. While one refused to be drawn on potential lay offs, he stressed that recruitment is going fall 80% next year - from 160 new recruits in 2008 to just 20 in 2009.

"We had planned to expand into Central Asia and Africa and place this in the hands of new recruits, but it has been put on hold because of the economic situation," he said.

While it might be fine to talk a good game about the resilience of the GCC banking sector, in practice it's becoming clear that it's naïve to think the region totally unaffected by the global downturn.

Recruiters tell us they know of local firms who have trimmed headcount and then swept it under the carpet.

One headhunter tells us: "All the local houses we speak to are being incredibly bearish, and I wouldn't be surprised if more lay-offs were on the cards going forward. Any recruitment that had been planned in the fourth quarter of 2008 has been put on hold."

AUTHOReFinancialCareers Gulf

Insider Comment

fa
faizalsid
5 January 2009
I am in banking field for the last 10 years and havent seen such a panic in my career. This is for a very short time and the market will recover...but the senior management should be prudent enough to takle the portfolio and not levy their mistakes on the employees by laying them off.
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AB
ABC
5 January 2009
Who says that local bank will not slash staff in 2009, i must tell you that one of the local bank had already slashed staff up to 50 in late November 2008 to cut the cost. I think this is the only local bank who had slashed staff other wise no other local bank had done this.
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mo
mohd1229
27 December 2008
As I'm working in corporate financing for the last 13 years i found out that most of Banks are not doing the appropriate financial analysis,credit analysis, and professional risk analysis, they were depending on the feasibility studies prepared by the client.In other words it was a matter of lending as the economy was booming at that era.I f the banks stopped financing their existing clients and if they started to reduce the sanctioned limits they will be a major reason of recession.
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Wi
Willie Steven
16 December 2008
I think some of the banks lost there way in the banking business and they all went into private banking, priority banking, investment banking, wealth management, real estate finance etc...which these financial products requires mainly sales skills. If everyone go back to the basic core banking where here you show your analytical skills and banking experience, I am sure no banks will let any of its corporate banking staff go but for the rest of service they can always recruit sales people at any booming stage.
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