British banking group Standard Chartered has announced plans to shutter operations in seven markets across Africa and the Middle East (AME) region.

The move is aimed at improving efficiency, reducing complexity, and redirecting resources to areas with greater scale and growth potential.

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Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are the markets from where Standard Chartered will fully exit.

In Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire, the bank will shutter retail, private, and business banking operations and shift focus on corporate, commercial, and institutional (CCIB) banking business.

These markets made up around 1% of the group’s total income in 2021 and a similar proportion of profit before tax, the bank said.

Information on the redundancies because of the closure was not provided by the bank in the press release.  

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Standard Chartered Group CEO Bill Winters said: “As we set out earlier in the year, we are sharpening our focus on the most significant opportunities for growth while also simplifying our business. We remain excited by a number of opportunities we see in the AME region, as illustrated by our new markets, but remain disciplined in our assessment of where we can deliver significantly improved shareholder returns.

“Collectively, our actions will position the AME franchise for the next phase of growth after a very strong 2021 performance.”

Last month, media reports emerged that the Kenyan arm of Standard Chartered is working to focus on the retail market in the East African nation.

Currently, the bank is present in 59 markets and serves clients in 83 nations.