As the industry prepares for an extended recession and a wave of skipped consumer loan repayments, African Bank is the first lender to put retrenchments on the table.
The layoffs come as the banking sector set aside billions of rand to cover losses from an expected spike of consumer defaults in an economy wallowing in recession and bleeding jobs after the coronavirus-induced restrictions wreaked havoc on household and business finances. The retrenchments also highlight an industry-wide trend to phase out redundant jobs in bank branches as consumers turn to electronic devices for banking services in an increasingly competitive market following the entry of two new app-only newcomer banks, TymeBank and Discovery Bank.African Bank said it had been automating processes across its operations and had made its services and products available online, as well as offline.
Bidvest Bank announced job cuts recently. Do you not do any research?