Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has decided to lay off as much as 400 employees as part of its efforts to cut costs amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reported citing sources familiar with the issue.

The latest redundancies will affect ADCB’s consumer banking business as well as involve its top management.

Two sources said that the UAE lender is culling hundreds of employees despite committing to not doing so because of the Covid-19 crisis.

In March 2020, ADCB said: “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Additionally, the bank has been looking to close 20 branches, added the Reuters report citing one of the sources.

In a statement, a spokesman for ADCB said that the bank had maintained efficiency over the last decade by carrying out regular reviews to identify its lowest underachievers and deploying talent in high-growth areas including digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the spokesman noted.

Banks in the country have also been forced to shut temporarily or take certain other measures due to the pandemic.

Last week, Dubai-based Emirates NBD began a new round of job cuts, which will result in hundreds of job cuts.

The move comes after the bank recorded a 58% plunge in profit, Reuters said.

Similarly, ADCB’s net profit also witnessed a sharp decline of 84% in its first quarter as a result of booking $292m in impairments on debt exposure to NMC Health and payments group Finablr.