Standard Bank Group Ltd. is earning more per employee than anytime over the past five years after reducing the number of workers by almost 2,100 in the 12 months through June.
Africa’s largest lender has used natural attrition and a reduction in the number of branches to trim staff to 46,168, according to an analysis of its first-half earnings released on Thursday. A push to digitization has resulted in Standard Bank closing about 100 branches in South Africa, bringing the number to 531, and to reduce the size of its outlets by 14% to contain costs that had been growing faster than income.