(Business in Cameroon) - Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon recently announced that it is closing its retail segment in Cameroon. The operation started on June 30, 2021, with the closure of retail bank accounts and the suspension of the services offered to retail clients. It will end on July 31 with the deactivation of its teller machines in Douala and Yaoundé.

Standard Chartered Bank explains that this decision is aimed at ensuring all of its resources are efficiently focused and used for the continuous and sustainable growth of its wholesale services to companies and institutions.

“The aim is to ensure that we are efficiently organized to serve our corporate clients by using our resources as efficiently as possible to develop the franchise and our competitive differentiation on this important segment, which is crucial for the country’s development (…)  We consider our clients as our most important assets and we are committed to taking additional steps to ensure their needs are met in line with the modern and digital environment,” said Idrissa Kamara, CEO of Standard Chartered Cameroon.

Standard Chartered entered the Cameroonian market in 1986. Recent figures prove that retail banking is its least performing segment. According to figures published by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC), in February 2021, the bank recorded XAF10.5 billion deposits in its retail segment. This is substantially lower than the XAF584.65 billion recorded by Afriland First Bank, XAF318.9 billion for BICEC, XAF295.6 billion for Société Générale, and XAF218.9 billion for SCB.

That month, deposits in the bank’s retail segment made up 5.73% of the overall deposits it recorded; 5.59% of the deposits were made by corporate clients and 21.39% by the public administration.

Sylvain Andzongo