BNP Paribas to scrap Bahrain as Middle East HQ and cut jobs, sources say

By Hadeel Al Sayegh and Mathieu Rosemain

DUBAI/PARIS (Reuters) - BNP Paribas is planning to reduce headcount in Bahrain and scrap Manama as its Middle East and Africa (MEA) head office, after deciding all its local offices in the region would report to Paris, two sources close to the matter said.

Staff were told during a conference call this week that the changes would lead to a reduction in the workforce in Bahrain by early next year, one of the sources said.

The decision by France's biggest bank to scrap its MEA headquarters comes as competition intensifies between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, for regional financial dominance.

BNP Paribas, which has offices in these three cities as well as in Kuwait, Qatar, and Morocco, wants to avoid the appearance of favouring any of the cities in the growing regional rivalry, one of the sources said.

"BNP Paribas which has been operating in Bahrain for over 50 years, will maintain its significant presence in the country and pursue its local business development," the bank said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday.

"The BNP Paribas Group is constantly adapting its set-up in all the countries where it operates, according to evolution in the markets, technology, customer needs and its risk policy," it added.

Bahrain, a vibrant financial hub in the 1970s and 1980s, has struggled since the rise of Dubai in the early 2000s and following Arab Spring uprisings in the country in 2011.

BNP Paribas' Bahrain base, which provides corporate and institutional banking and investment solutions, as well as Islamic banking services, employed 261 people as of the end of last year, according to the bank's annual financial report.

(Writing Federico Maccioni; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Mark Potter)