London, Dubai: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC, which bought Barclays Plc’s retail business in the UAE, has cut more than 200 jobs over the past three months, according to three people with knowledge of the reductions.
The cuts were made mostly in the retail business, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. About 100 people were dismissed last month, with the layoffs mostly affecting junior staff, one of the people said. A spokesman for the bank, which employs about 2,500 people across the country, said the the bank doesn’t comment on speculation and rumours.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank joins other lenders in the UAE that have cut jobs to adjust to slower economic growth after oil prices halved over the past two years. Union National Bank PJSC, a lender controlled by both the governments of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, dismissed about 50 people in August, while Emirates NBD PJSC, the nation’s biggest bank, reduced its workforce by more than 250 people at its small and medium enterprise and Islamic lending businesses in April.
Barclays sold its UAE retail banking business to Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in 2014 for Dh650 million ($177 million). The Shariah-compliant lender said at the time it would add 110,000 customers and absorb all of Barclays’s retail staff in the country following the transaction. It posted a 1 per cent increase in second-quarter profit.
