The three banks employ more than 85,000 people in total.
Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc are among the global banks which have pledged to preserve jobs despite the worst economic downturn in years, as the pandemic cripples tourism, manufacturing and services. The Singapore government has said the economy may contract by as much as 4% this year.
Despite the expected hit to the bank’s revenue growth, Singapore-based OCBC has “strong levels of capital, funding and liquidity to guide us through these uncertain times,” Tsien wrote. An OCBC spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo, which was distributed to employees on March 24.
Gupta, in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg News, also said his bank’s liquidity and capital position is strong. UOB’s Wee said his bank does not “plan to conduct retrenchment exercises at this point in time as a result of Covid-19.”
OCBC’s total headcount stood at 30,492 as of the end of December, and the bank has operations across Southeast Asia, Greater China, Europe and the US. The number of staff has risen 41% in the past 10 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
DBS, the region’s largest lender by assets, employed 28,419 people as of the end of 2019, while UOB had total headcount of 26,872.
