NCB cuts over 100 jobs

NATIONAL Commercial Bank (NCB) announced on Friday it will cut over 100 jobs in a move to manage costs.

Sheree Martin, NCB senior assistant general manager, Group Marketing & Communications Division, said challenges of the current economic environment played a role in

the decision.

"Evaluation of staff productivity and efficiency is a process which we have continually pursued in striving for optimal efficiency," Martin told

Sunday Finance.

"We therefore identified required positions for efficiency and sought to align these with our cost strategy," she said, adding that "It is important to note that staff costs are the highest costs incurred by the bank".

NCB incurred staff costs of $8 billion during the year ending September

30, 2009, almost 60 per cent of its operating expenses.

Prior to this latest announcement, the company made several senior staff cuts to consolidate operations and scale back on expenses. Last month, two of the company's top brass were made redundant -- group chief compliance officer and company secretary, Jennifer Dewdney Kelly and group chief information officer, Peter Quinn. Also, the bank elected not to hire a new managing director for NCB Capital Markets after the resignation of ex-boss Christopher Williams, instead opting to have NCB Group deputy managing director, Dennis Cohen, assume the position on an interim basis.

The move can be seen as timely since NCB will likely see a reduction in interest income, under the Jamaica Debt Exchange (JDX), as a result of the lower rates carried on Government paper. However, Martin said the bank decided to rationalise several months prior to the JDX.

"We made the decision to centralise key divisions thereby capitalising on expertise that could readily span across divisions for the benefit of the Group," she said.

"We began by centralising Marketing, IT and HR functions; more recently, IT functions have been further absorbed into the Network Operations Division, and the Group Compliance Division has been absorbed into

the Group General Council Division," she added.

NCB did not disclose the exact number of positions that will be made redundant in the latest exercise or the exact time the redundancies will take effect, but Martin confirmed to Sunday Finance it's "Not less than 100" cuts.

She said there is no major redundancy programme of that magnitude anticipated for the near future.

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