Emirates NBD plans to cut up to 750 jobs

Emirates NBD, the leading bank of UAE, is to cut as many as 750 jobs as part of an internal restructuring, just six months after its acquisition of Dubai Bank.

The cuts, affecting about 15 per cent of Emirates NBD’s staff, will leave its subsidiaries – including Emirates Islamic Bank and Dubai Bank – unscathed.

Emirates NBD, the biggest bank in the country by total assets has been rocked by the after effects of Dubai’s financial woes, having been forced to set aside Dh4.9bn for bad debts last year.

Dubai Bank was rescued by the Dubai Government in April after it buckled under the weight of bad debts. Emirates NBD purchased the Islamic lender for a nominal Dh10 after a clean-up of its bad debts by the Ministry of Finance.

Emirates NBD was left with huge numbers of staff and a bloated bureaucracy after the merger of Emirates International Bank and National Bank of Dubai in 2007.

The biggest bank merger ever seen in the Middle East was expected to create a national champion.

However, as Emirates NBD’s lending dwindled amid sluggish economic growth, it was eclipsed in size last year by rivals elsewhere in the Gulf including Qatar National Bank and Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank.

From: The National