Local bank chops staff
UAE bank Mashreq has announced that it plans to cut 4% of its workforce in order to prepare for a difficult 2009.
The bank hasn't revealed details of where exactly the cuts will occur or how many people a 4% cut entails, as it doesn't reveal exact staff numbers.
However, it said the affected employees where chosen "due to either their role being no longer viable, or as a result of performance assessments."
Like so many financial firms, the fortunes of Mashreq seem to have changed since September 2008. It its interim Q3 report, it talked of how "human resources, infrastructure development and technology" costs had increased by 35% on 2007 for the first six months of the year.
It says the decision to make redundancies was to "respond to the challenges of the year ahead".
Lay offs are becoming increasingly common within the UAE financial sector, with Shuaa Capital and Istithmar World revealing cuts in the last two months.
