Absa focused on growth, not job cuts: Ramos
Barclays Africa Group CEO, Maria Ramos, says that the bank is focused on growth, and not axing staff at the financial institution.
It follows reports that Absa’s parent company, Barclays, will axe up to 12,000 jobs globally.
Barclays increased its 55.5% stake in Absa to 62.3% last year, creating an new entity, Barclays Africa.
Fielding questions in an interview with Moneyweb on whether Barclay’s cost cutting would affect the SA unit, Ramos said: “Our business is a growth business, so that’s the focus for us.”
“We obviously have to make sure that we remain focused on running an efficient and effective business,” she said.
“We’ve maintained all along that the Barclays Africa transaction was not going to have a direct impact on job losses, and that remains our position. And we are focusing on growth.”
Absa actually increased its staff count in 2013, to 31,972 in SA, from 31,444 in 2012, with the total employment number including the rest of Africa up to 42,356, from 42, 175 before.
Paperless branches
Ramos told Moneyweb that the group continues to invest in its branch network.
“We are taking away the paper. We want to make sure that when customers walk into the branch they are directed to somebody that knows what their needs are, knows how to address their questions, can do all of this without tons and tons of paper. And we are starting to feel the effects of that.”
Absa cut the number of outlets in SA during the reporting period, to 829, from 874 in 2012.
“The priorities I have set are underpinned by a transformational investment programme
of over R3 billion this year,” Ramos told analysts during a results presentation on Tuesday.
More than a third of this will be invested into several large projects:
- transforming our branches, including creating paperless processes;
- integrating and standardizing IT;
- creating efficient processing hubs in the right locations,
- and investing into our digital capabilities
Absa’s mobile banking customers increased 19% to 5.1 million and internet customers 13% to 1.4 million. In SA, mobile banking climbed to 4.8 million, from 4.2 million in 2012.
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