Publications
Partners
Don’t try to find a job at a South African bank this year – banks are planning to limit new appointments and axe more employees.
FNB this week announced it would lay off 589 employees and close 34 of its branches, mostly in the Eastern Cape and northern Gauteng.
According to FNB, the dismissals are due to “inefficiencies” that arose at its branches after “automisation and digital migration” of some of its services.
According to annual results from the FirstRand Group, FNB’s focus on its electronic and digital platforms helped raise its profit before tax by 16% last year.
The volume of electronic transactions at FNB has increased by 14%, online transactions by 15% and the use of its app for banking services
by 69%.
Nedbank and Absa this week said that the rise of digital banking services over the past few years had significantly influenced the kind of tasks their employees now had to perform.
These changes made it a necessity for new skills to be developed within banks and both banks have, like FNB, already invested in this.
However, this crucial decision is coming at a time when the economic outlook in South Africa seems particularly muddy, and when consumers are under huge financial pressure.
All four of South Africa’s big banks warned with the release of their results earlier this month that they were expecting a difficult year ahead.
“We are expecting the other banks to follow in FNB’s footsteps. We don’t think this is going to be the only restructuring this year,” said Ben Venter, a representative from the financial services sector union Sasbo.
Vanessa Hattingh, Sasbo representative for FNB, said the bank gave the union the assurance that it wouldn’t make further job cuts this year.
“Even though other banks haven’t formally informed us that they are also planning lay-offs, we are expecting it,” she said.
Nedbank CEO Mike Brown said that the bank was not contemplating any general dismissals at this point.
“Due to the volatile macroeconomic environment, we are forced by necessity to search for opportunities to manage our business more efficiently and to get the most out of investments in technology,” he said.
Brown said that at Nedbank, this meant that some employees were now fulfilling different roles.
He said the bank also controlled its employee numbers through natural decreases.
However, he added: “We are observant of low growth forecasts and a volatile economic environment, and will continue to manage our expenses and head count appropriate to this environment.”
Staffing costs last year constituted 54.8% of Nedbank’s total operating costs. They also rose by 3.3% last year after an increase of 9.6% in 2014.
Barclays Africa on Friday confirmed that there would be no job losses at the company as a result of Barclays UK’s decision to decrease its shareholding in Barclays Africa.
According to Barclays Africa’s annual report, its employee costs increased by 8% in the financial year to December 31 to almost R21 billion, after a 10% increase in 2014.
