Durrant Pate/Contributor

The planned lay-offs at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) subsidiary of TFOB (2021) Limited, operators of the Lynk’s mobile wallet, has started.

It is being reported that as much as 60 per cent of TFOB (2021) staff have been booted, as the company’s restructuring exercise, which was announced two weeks ago by the incoming management team at NCB Financial Group, has started.

Lynk, the only digital wallet which accepts the JAM-DEX central bank digital currency, was targeted as one of the areas the new Robert Almeida management is contemplating where possible cost saving could be realised.

The NCB Financial Group has confirmed that Lynk is undergoing staff changes noting that the “staff adjustment is among other efficiency improvement initiatives, as part of ongoing efforts to bolster operational efficiency and improve customer engagement”. Saying the move “aligns with NCB Financial Group Limited’s emphasis on efficiency, governance, and customer experience,” the banking group indicated that less than two per cent of the total workforce across the group is being affected by the staff cuts.

Reallocating affected employees

The company reports that it is actively seeking opportunities to reallocate affected employees within the organisation where possible. In the meantime, Lynk team members have been given notice that they will be laid off or that their contracts will not be renewed with more than 30 staffers said to be affected coming from sales, marketing, operations and human resources.

These functions will now be managed by existing teams in the NCB Financial Group. TFOB is now expected to now focus on managing the existing infrastructure, while the other services will be executed by the group.

In addition to team members, the services of a number of contractors to TFOB have been terminated. While several management positions at TFOB have been chopped, it is understood that Vernon James will remain as CEO.

The retrenchment exercise comes as no surprise, as NCB Financial Group interim CEO Robert Almeida and his management team indicated at a press briefing two weeks ago that there were some changes coming to the digital wallet, as the group seeks to reap more profit from the almost two-year-old firm. The group said less spending would be done on new rollouts for the Lynk platform.

At the press briefing, Almeida said there would be no “mass lay-offs”, but admitted that there would be some restructuring. Since the interim leadership team was appointment a little more than a month ago some J$6 to J$8 billion in possible cost savings were identified.