BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Scotiabank says it’s undergoing a necessary restructuring of its Barbados operations.
That’s according to a statement issued to local media house, Barbados Today, although it did not confirm the report that up to 20 workers could lose their jobs in the process.
“As a result of the completion of the sale of Scotiabank operations in seven Eastern Caribbean countries, we will be restructuring our Managing Director’s Office in Barbados, particularly the centralized functions that supported the divested businesses,” the Canadian bank said.
“We have been discussing these changes with both our employees and our union partners over the past several months.”
Scotiabank recently finalized a US$123 million deal with Republic Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) – the holding company for the Trinidad-based Republic Bank – to take over its operations in seven Caribbean countries – Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Maarten. However, Scotia is continuing to operate as usual in Antigua and Barbuda and Guyana where they have faced pushback from regulators and the government.
The Bank told Barbados Today that the decision to restructure a portion of the Barbados market was not taken lightly and insisted that the bank was committed to supporting employees throughout the process.
“Wherever possible, affected staff members will be redeployed to other areas of the business. The proposed staff changes will not affect our customers or customer service,” the bank assured, without specifying what the changes would be.
Scotibank added that it remained committed to Barbados.
