UAE’s ADCB to lay off around 400 employees – reports

The UAE’s third largest bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), is laying off hundreds of employees, a report by Reuters said on Tuesday.

Two sources reportedly confirmed the job cuts and said that the bank was making around 400 employees redundant.

They added that the cuts would be made across ADCB’s consumer business and that several senior employees were among those being laid off.

In a statement, a spokesman for ADCB told Reuters that it had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

Gulf Business has reached out to ADCB to independently verify these reports.

The news of job cuts comes weeks after the ADCB Group – which includes Al Hilal Bank – said that no employees would be made redundant as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read: Abu Dhabi bank ADCB says no layoffs in 2020 due to Covid-19 impact

In May, ADCB reported a Q1 2020 net profit of Dhs209m, down nearly 82 per cent from Dhs1.152bn in the corresponding period last year.

Read: UAE’s ADCB posts 82% drop in Q1 net profit on NMC impairment charges

The bank’s total liquid assets as at the end of Q1 2020 stood at Dhs108bn.

It added that excluding the Dhs1.072bn impairment charges related to NMC Health Group, Finablr and associated companies, impairment charges in Q1 were 11 per cent lower quarter-on-quarter and 9 per cent higher year-on-year.

Impairment charges in the first quarter totalled Dhs1.882bn.

ADCB confirmed in April that it had initiated criminal legal proceedings along with the Attorney General in Abu Dhabi against a “number of individuals” associated with the NMC Health Group.