EDINBURGH — Across the globe, as more people acquire smartphones, the retail banking industry is investing in digital banking. Paying the price of technological progress is the workforce deployed across ever-quieter branches, with banks signing off on their physical presence in shopping centres and streets. In 2017, Vikram Pandit, former CEO of Citigroup, forecast that robots would take 30% of global banking jobs within five years. At the time, that amounted to about 1m jobs in Europe and 770,000 in the US. Job losses are being announced with increasing frequency in the news in Europe, with BNP Paribas revealing last week that 2,500 jobs in Belgium are at stake. It was inevitable that this wave would wash through South African retail banking, with job cuts at Absa a clear sign that significant changes are underway. Absa started with its top management and is working its way across the corporation as it cuts costs and reorganises to compete aggressively with other established banks and new digitally savvy entrants, like Sasfin and Hello Paisa. Expect more job losses as other banks follow suit. – Jackie Cameron
By Roxanne Henderson
(Bloomberg) – Absa Group Ltd. is restructuring its South African retail and business banking unit within months of reducing the division’s management team and rolling out a new strategy.
Finance labour union Sasbo was notified to begin consulting staff last week on the potential impact of the move, union representative Philip Landman said by phone Wednesday. About 15 retail-banking executives exited their positions at the Johannesburg-based lender in June, after a similar process was followed to flatten the unit’s top structure.
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Discussions between Sasbo, Absa and employees are still in their early stages, with 827 jobs potentially at risk, Landman cited a written notice from the company as saying, adding that 340 people might be employed through the process. “At this point we are trying to figure out if what the bank is saying has merit, and prove that the restructuring is actually unnecessary.”
“It is only once the realignment is complete that the total number of people who have either been appointed to new roles or have left the organisation will be known with certainty,” Absa said in emailed comments. The changes will result in “both new opportunities and redundancies across the business,” it said, adding that the steps aren’t a “retrenchment exercise, but a realignment effort aimed at enabling our new strategy.”
Tepid growth
The shake-up comes as South African lenders contend with slow economic growth and a consumer base battered by tax hikes and rising fuel and utility expenses. A stubborn unemployment rate of about 27% and declining business confidence is also curbing demand for loans, forcing banks to bring their costs down.
Retail and business banking accounts for more than half of Absa’s profit and is at the centre of a group-wide push to grow revenue faster than its competitors after the lender’s former UK-based parent, Barclays Plc, sold down its controlling stake to below 15%.
Read also: What’s next for Maria Ramos after she leaves Absa?
The division’s chief executive officer, Arrie Rautenbach, who was appointed about a year ago, is focusing on boosting mortgage lending, lowering costs and expanding the number of products sold to its clients. Rautenbach is implementing his strategy as South Africa’s banking sector becomes increasingly competitive with one new rival, TymeBank, launching in February and two more expected to follow this year.
The stock rose as much as 2.1% before paring gains to trade 0.4% up as of 9:16am in Johannesburg. After underperforming the FTSE/JSE Africa Banks Index in 2018, Absa has advanced almost 8% this year, leading it’s three biggest peers.
Absa will publish its annual financial results on Monday.
