Scotia bank cutting jobs and branches

[metallicat]

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/business/sc...rges-1.2822896

I'm trying my best to not get prematurely outraged here, but it's hard. 6 billion dollar profit last year and they have to cut this many jobs, two thirds of which are in Canada, to save money? Maybe some of the more financially knowledgeable people can help explain this move.

[Finger Cookin]

They're not richer than they think, I guess.

[calgarygeologist]

Scotiabank is a garbage bank. I'm shocked that people actually do business with that bank.

[troutman]

The Fifth Season

[Flacker]

Agreed, Scotia is garbage, deal with any other Canadian bank. My ex-girlfriend was defrauded for over $1500 in Europe and Scotia essentially told her to pound sand.

In comparison, I got my debit card skimmed last time I in Mexico, Royal Bank credited the loss, then investigated the fraud.

[Regular_John]

When my wife and I got married we decided to open a joint account with Scotia bank. They screwed up essentially every transaction we attempted during the first 3 months that we haven't touched the account since. The simplest of task was just too difficult for them to do without making us jump through some hoops.

Certified cheque brought in during business hours? "We're going to need to put a 5 day hold on this"

Scotia Bank is no good.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/business/sc...rges-1.2822896

I'm trying my best to not get prematurely outraged here, but it's hard. 6 billion dollar profit last year and they have to cut this many jobs, two thirds of which are in Canada, to save money? Maybe some of the more financially knowledgeable people can help explain this move.

They're not making that 6 billion in profit from international retail banking. Those ranches only serve to create brand awareness and drum up potential business clients.

Cutting shoddy international branches cuts G&A, as does reducing head office head counts. Acting as if companies are only allowed to cost cut when facing losses is a terrible idea. Cut now to stem the tide and avoid potential future losses.

[ranchlandsselling]

Their staff at some of the branches I've been in would be the absolute worst if not for the staff at National Bank Financial.

Honestly, it's like they hire the most inexperienced, poor speaking, unprofessional people they can find. Or, that's who applies there.

Not that familier with their branch network. Only the ones in my immediate areas within Calgary. Can't imagine many of the Calgary branches would be closed. Maybe in older neighborhoods where leases are almost up and the growth isn't what it should be.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/business/sc...rges-1.2822896

I'm trying my best to not get prematurely outraged here, but it's hard. 6 billion dollar profit last year and they have to cut this many jobs, two thirds of which are in Canada, to save money? Maybe some of the more financially knowledgeable people can help explain this move.

There's a lot of regulatory pressure on the Canadian banks. As a result of the financial crisis the capital requirements that are put on banks have increased and now they have to comply with these new rules. It makes growth in mature markets like Canada tough to come by as a bank and as such in order to generate returns they have to get more efficient. A lot of the jobs cut in Canada are in mid-office type work that can potentially be automated. The other cuts are occurring in Latin American operations where revenue growth has not lead to profit increases.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

There's a lot of regulatory pressure on the Canadian banks. As a result of the financial crisis the capital requirements that are put on banks have increased and now they have to comply with these new rules. It makes growth in mature markets like Canada tough to come by as a bank and as such in order to generate returns they have to get more efficient. A lot of the jobs cut in Canada are in mid-office type work that can potentially be automated. The other cuts are occurring in Latin American operations where revenue growth has not lead to profit increases.

Thats true, but at the same time the banks have pushed to increase indebtedness for Canadians in general (or we've pushed ourselves into more indebtedness). Either way though, this is a good thing for the banks and thats how they make money. As there is more of a push for people to get out of debt and pay debt down though, the banks have to trim costs and start looking in other places to increase the bottom line figures.

[Zarley]

I bank with Scotia and I've found them to be very good. No complaints here.

Also, as a shareholder it's good to see them streamlining operations like this.

[bizaro86]

I've dealt with most of the big banks on mortgages and accounts of various kinds, and have found Scotia to be the easiest/most competent to deal with. The incompetence I recently got at CIBC on the other hand...

[Blaster86]

I have a savings account with Scotia and used to do business banking with them through the store I manage.

While I ignore the savings account and let it do its thing, dealing with them on the business side of things was awful. They're unorganized and unprepared on a daily basis. They'd lose entire cash deposits and try and blame us. Then, eventually, they would turn up and it turned out on two different occasions that the teller just forgot to process it before the end of her shift (we would usually go in close to close) and it sat in her desk for a week. Apparently it was only after ten frantic back and forth phone calls that she thought to check what the Scotia Deposit bag in her desk was for.

"Ooops, sorry we accused you of losing it! Our bad!"

We'd have to check our coin orders on site and put bill orders through our own counters to make sure they hadn't messed those up too. Order $500 worth of toonies? How about $400 because that's easier to grab out of the box and wrap up.


We switched to a Credit Union two years ago and I don't think I could ever do any day to day banking with Scotia again. I've been tempted to pull my Savings from them a few times.

Nice people. Awful service.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

I have a savings account with Scotia and used to do business banking with them through the store I manage.

While I ignore the savings account and let it do its thing, dealing with them on the business side of things was awful. They're unorganized and unprepared on a daily basis. They'd lose entire cash deposits and try and blame us, then eventually they would turn up and turned out on two different occasions that the teller just forgot to process it before the end of her shift and it sat in her desk for a week. Apparently it was only after ten frantic back and forth phone calls that she thought to check what the Scotia Deposit bag in her desk was for.

"Ooops, sorry we accused you of losing it! Our bad!"

We'd have to check our coin orders on site and put bill orders through our own counters to make sure they hadn't messed those up too. Order $500 worth of toonies? How about $400 because that's easier to grab out of the box and wrap up.


We switched to a Credit Union two years ago and I don't think I could ever do any day to day banking with Scotia again. I've been tempted to pull my Savings from them a few times.

Nice people. Awful service.

I've been with Scotia both business and personal in 5 different branches and found them to be awesome

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I've been with Scotia both business and personal in 5 different branches and found them to be awesome

Its all anecdotal for the most part because if they were uniformly garbage they'd be out of business.

I've dealt with Scotia on several occasions and found them to be unapologetically clownshoes.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I've been with Scotia both business and personal in 5 different branches and found them to be awesome

I've only ever dealt with the one branch personally. I know when my store was owned by an umbrella company and connected to other stores that there were issues with another Scotia that forced them to also switch to a Credit Union.

Your sample size is most certainly bigger though.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Locke

Its all anecdotal for the most part because if they were uniformly garbage they'd be out of business.

I've dealt with Scotia on several occasions and found them to be unapologetically clownshoes.

Agreed on the first point. The whole "I use this bank and they are great/I used that bank and they suck" is basically adding as little to this topic as "crap, my fantasy team!" does to a story about a hockey injury.

What will be interesting to see out of these cuts is what Scotia's financials look like when they are released in December. They made $6 billion last year, but this seems to indicate that they will come in well below that this year.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Locke

Its all anecdotal for the most part because if they were uniformly garbage they'd be out of business.

I've dealt with Scotia on several occasions and found them to be unapologetically clownshoes.

That's probably the range at all of the banks, which are probably all about the same on average. If you find someone good at a specific bank, it can be worth it to deal with the same person.

Realistically, I think tellers make ~$15/hr, so the quality is going to be pretty variable.

[TorqueDog]

I like the online banking interface of Scotiabank, but I am also considering switching from them. I've been with Scotia since I was a kid, so it's sort of a big deal for me to change. I just don't know who I want to go through. Any suggestions? Pros, cons for each?

[WilsonFourTwo]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

Scotiabank is a garbage bank. I'm shocked that people actually do business with that bank.

I'm not a Scotiabank fanboy per se but have used them for ~15 years without any problems. Mortgages, savings, chequing, credit...

In my opinion they're 'just another bank'....kinda surprised to see that they'd get bashed any more than the other big 'bend over, shut up, and give us all your money' banks in Canada?

EDIT: I should note two things; I really like their online interface (although the alpha-numeric only passwords seems rather foolish), and have built good personal relationships with a handful of home-branch employees over the years - that likely helps make my experience a generally postive one.