CIMB Singapore will be retrenching staff as part of a retrenchment exercise, according to an internal memo on March 23.
The number of staff affected is undisclosed.
The exercise will also see the bank closing its branch in Orchard Road, according to The Business Times.
The exercise comes as the bank reviews its growth strategy in line with the group’s vision to be a “leading focused Asean bank”, said CIMB Singapore’s CEO Victor Lee in the memo.
"This would entail optimising our functional setup, leveraging our group's strengths through regionalisation, and closing our branch in Orchard to fully focus on our main branch in Raffles Place…These will make us more resilient, more productive and better positioned for growth going forward,” he wrote.
The move comes nearly four months after the bank fired three of its long-time banking heads.
See: CIMB Singapore fires three long-time banking heads amid business restructuring and CIMB has announced replacements for the 3 heads that were fired previously
The restructuring came about as the bank recorded poor performance for the 1HFY2020.
On the retrenchment exercise, Lee added that "regrettably, there will be some in our workforce who will be affected by the restructuring."
"We will ensure affected staff are informed at the earliest possible date and all efforts will be made to assist them with the transition,” he wrote.
“In line with CIMB Group’s vision to be a leading focused Asean bank, we have conducted a detailed analysis of CIMB Singapore’s business and recalibrated our Forward23+ strategy with an emphasis on sustainable growth,” says a CIMB spokesperson when queried.
“Given our digital transformation efforts and our customers’ shift towards online channels, we have carefully reviewed our resources. This will enable us to weather the challenging and fast evolving environment to ultimately, deliver value to all our stakeholders.”
“Since 2020, we have been intensifying our efforts to upskill our staff particularly in Digital, Data and Design and are proactively working with internal and external support groups to assist our affected staff during this transition,” adds the spokesperson.
The bank’s Orchard branch will be closed by end-June.
