OTTAWA, Canada, Nov. 05, CNS – Canada’s Scotiabank has announced plans to shut or shrink 120 branches, largely in Mexico and the Caribbean.
The bank said it would close down 35 of its 200 branches in the Caribbean and would sever 1,500 full-time employees, including 500 from its international operations.
“In some of these (Caribbean) countries, we are just overbranched and we have to size it to the economic realities of these economies,” said Scotiabank chief executive officer, Brian Porter.
Porter said that the bank’s revenue growth has been encouraging outside Canada, but profit has not jumped as much he would like.
Scotiabank said the closure of the Caribbean branches was due “to the prolonged economic recovery and continued uncertain outlook” and that it had started restructuring initiatives “in order to improve the speed and quality of service it provides its customers, to reduce costs in a sustainable manner, and to achieve greater operational efficiencies.
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