BROOKLYN, NY – Scotiabank has confirmed that as many as 149 employees will be placed on the breadline as it moves to digitalize further its operations driven by customer preference.
“These decisions were not taken lightly, and we will ensure all employees are treated fairly and with respect as they transition employment,” the bank said.
In a letter sent to staff, Scotiabank said that it plans to close its collections department, which would result in the retrenchment of all front line members of the team and support, including managers.
It said that those departments would now be rerouted through Scotiabank’s offices in the Dominican Republic from May 31.
“As we work towards continuous improvement of client offerings and service standards, we will continue to invest in automation, leverage centers of excellence and size and scale throughout our global footprint. These advances will drive changes in our back-office support functions / centralized operations hubs. More specifically, there will be changes at The Operations and Shared Services Company Ltd (OSSCL).
“Upcoming changes will result in the consolidation of specific support services and back-end functions, including the consolidation of a part of our Collections Unit into our Global Business Services Hub in the Dominican Republic – which also currently services our Canadian operation.
“Over the next few months, OSSCL will also be impacted by the expiry of some operations functions that support the divested Eastern Caribbean territories,” the bank added.
On November 27, 2018, the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) announced that it would sell its businesses in nine Caribbean markets, including Guyana, St. Maarten, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts, and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the Trinidad-based Republic Financial Holdings Ltd. (RFHL).
One year later, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) announced that effective November 1, 2019, the Bank of Nova Scotia operations in Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St Kitts, and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines would cease and the RBTT operations would commence in these countries.
The Scotiabank operations in Antigua and Barbuda were taken over by the Eastern Caribbean Amalgamated Bank (ECAB’s) last year.
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