Standard Chartered layoffs may hit Indians at senior positions

Fears of Indians at senior positions losing their jobs linger following Standard Chartered Bank CEO's decision to axe 1,000 top jobs. The bank has seen a major shakeup after finances took a hit last year following bad loan losses in Indian, Chinese and Korean companies and high exposure to the Middle East. The changes involved an exodus of top managers, including CEO Peter Sands and Asia chief Jaspal Bindra. The bank's new CEO Bill Winters made further changes, transferring India chief Sunil Kaushal to head the Middle East.

According to sources, the bank is facing heat from the Reserve Bank of India to incorporate locally and is likely to restructure its operations in the country ahead of its application to the RBI.

Winters said he planned to reduce the number of staff who are graded in bands 1-4 by a quarter, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Those bands cover board members to senior bankers at the managing director level, and include about 4,000 staff in total.

Winters, who took over as CEO in June, said the bank had already reduced the number of employees and the other affected staff will be told by the end of November. He said the bank would also make disposals and cut clients as part of his strategic review.

"We need to create room for...investment. While some will come from efficiencies, we will also look to divest where we are not differentiated and an activity, business or location is not critical to a core strength," Winters said in the memo.

(Image credits: Indiatimes)