Standard Chartered Plans to Move London Jobs to Dubai

[glover]

Standard Chartered Plans to Move London Jobs to Dubai (Update2)

By Juan Pablo Spinetto and Sebastian Boyd

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Chartered Plc, a U.K. bank that makes most of its money in Asia, plans to move between 50 and 100 banking positions to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from London.

Teams trading interest rates and the currencies of G-10 countries, those specializing in Africa and the staff that monitor Standard Chartered's loan portfolio will be asked to transfer to Dubai, London-based spokesman Sean Farrell said today. The bank doesn't plan any redundancies, he said.

Standard Chartered said in May it would create a new ``strategic hub'' in the emirate. Banks including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG are opening units in the Persian Gulf as governments in the region deregulate industries and companies sell shares.

``It's bringing the business closer to its customer base,'' said Mark Thomas, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. in London.

Standard Chartered, which said it has 110 traders and sales staff in London, offered its traders special expatriate packages if they accept the move, Farrell said. Those who accept will report to Shayne Nelson, chief executive officer for the Middle East and North Africa.

Structured trading, project finance, capital-markets bankers, commodities traders and those whose clients are based in Europe will remain in the U.K., Farrell said.

No Tax

The bank's new building is in the Dubai International Financial Centre, meaning the bank will pay no tax on income or profit. Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Mellon Financial Corp. are among the finance companies that have offices in the DIFC.

According to a 2007 salary survey by search firm Napier Scott, managing directors at a top tier firm in Dubai can expect to earn 450,000 pounds ($891,000) a year including bonuses, compared with about 720,000 pounds trading interest rates and foreign exchange derivatives in London. Napier Scott canvassed 3,000 people for the poll.

Dubai-based bankers are more insecure in their jobs than those based in London, according to a survey of users of the recruitment Web site Efinancialcareers.com. More than 72 percent of Dubai-based bankers asked said they expected to lose their jobs in the next two years, compared with 66.7 percent in Europe and 66.1 percent in Asia Pacific. Efinancialcareers, a unit of New York-based Dice Holdings Inc., collected 1,536 responses to the survey, it said in April.

Dubai, Singapore Investment

Standard Chartered, which opened its first branch in the U.A.E. in 1958, last year posted a 32 percent increase in earnings from the emirates. Wholesale banking income in the U.A.E. rose 25 percent, according to the bank's annual report.

Dubai World, a group controlled by Dubai's ruling Al-Maktoum family, last year bought a 2.7 percent stake in Standard Chartered for $1 billion through its Istithmar PJSC investment unit.

In March, U.S. oil-services company Halliburton Co. announced it would transfer its headquarters to Dubai from Houston, Texas.

Standard Chartered's relocation plan comes after the company said April 18 it will spend S$800 million ($523 million) on a new office in Singapore that will be the company's biggest.

Singapore will serve as Standard Chartered's global headquarters for private and consumer banking, corporate finance, debt capital markets and foreign exchange. The bank will increase the number of employees in Singapore to 6,000 by 2010, from 3,800.

Temasek Holdings Pte, the Singapore government's investment arm, owns about 12 percent of Standard Chartered.

Jim Antos, a Bear Stearns Asia analyst in Hong Kong, said Standard Chartered's plan to set up a hub and relocate some jobs to Dubai and build a new office in Singapore ``are a natural expansion of their target markets.''

Standard Chartered derived 64 percent of its 2006 operating revenue from Asia Pacific, with 22 percent from the Middle East and South Asia excluding India, according to Antos.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Kgk&refer=home

[BinDubai]

its getting better and better

[glover]

i think this is only the beginning! First Halliburton, and now Standard Chartered Bank moving a big chunk of their operations from London to Dubai, making Dubai the second biggest office they have in the world after their global headquarters in Singapore!

note that it is not only operations dealing with the middle east, but "Teams trading interest rates and the currencies of G-10 countries, those specializing in Africa and the staff that monitor Standard Chartered's loan portfolio".

[Naz UK]

Standard Chartered. The world's shittest bank. Complete with the most underpaid, underqualified, brain-damaged, boredom-struck, unhelpful and downright stupid employees. Expecting "customer service" from these bunch of clowns is like expecting a lecture on quantum physics from a kindergarten class. May their business fail and may they be hit with a plague of mismanagement and ultimate bankruptcy. Here's praying.

[Krazy]

Originally Posted by BinDubai

its getting better and better

remember foreign companies = increase in foreign workers = spreading of foreign culture = conflict with local culture

you're calling it "better and better" now but the consequences might be something you complain about later.. like the saying goes be careful what you wish for coz u just might get it all

[BinDubai]

no Crazy ... not with the nationalism law.. things are taking shape the way they should slowly

and locals are getting more aware of the culture problem , and the local culture will be enforced if you will , and make people more aware of it,

every other culture is a "sub" culture while the traditional culture is the main.

[glover]

define to me what you mean by "the local culture" and how would you "enforce" it!

[BinDubai]

Arabic local culture , and i mean taking the local culture in considration when forming new regulations and laws.

[Naz UK]

Let's not get away from the topic of the thread, which is the fact that Standard Chartered are now employees donkies in Dubai, coz they are cheaper than humans in the UK. Slightly less efficient too. But its all good, coz S.C. are set to save a packet so as long as the bank makes more money, everyone's a winner. Has the Bur Dubai branch caught fire yet?

[AltinD]

Originally Posted by BinDubai

no Crazy ... not with the nationalism law.. things are taking shape the way they should slowly

and locals are getting more aware of the culture problem , and the local culture will be enforced if you will , and make people more aware of it,

I don't know in which paralel universe you're living in, but certanly isn't the same one we all others are.

[Naz UK]

Has anyone else managed to walk in and out of a branch of Standard Chartered and successfully refrained from stabbing someone in the neck with a rusty screw-driver?

[AltinD]

Have you tried any other bank? ... not that it will make any difference

[Naz UK]

Exactly. It's not the name, its the staff they employ. But what do you expect for 1000Dhs a month? The fact they're still breathing is a bonus.

[Dubai_Boy]

Abu Dhagi islamic bank is great , try them out.

[luv2bebrown]

Originally Posted by Naz UK

Has anyone else managed to walk in and out of a branch of Standard Chartered and successfully refrained from stabbing someone in the neck with a rusty screw-driver?

i did ONCE. the screwdriver i had wasnt rusty at the time.

[I Know]

Dubai questions Standard Chartered

Regulators in the UAE are asking questions about Standard Chartered's operations in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The move follows allegations the UK bank concealed as much as US$250 billion (Dh918.26bn) in transactions with Iran that violated US sanctions.

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationa...dard-chartered