By Morris Aron

CfC Stanbic Financial Services has announced it will close four branches.

The brokerage firm will also move client service function to either agencies or the Internet.

The move has been informed by slow activity at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), which has forced stockbrokers to review their strategies.

The decision "aimed at cutting costs" will see four branches in Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu closed by the end of the year and 40 employees staff sent home.

"The decision to layoff staff is inevitable due to the shrinking business at the NSE, coupled with the slowdown of the economy which has been a big challenge to the stockbroking industry this year," the firm’s Managing Director Nkoregamba Mwebesa said on Friday.

The company will, however, retain Mombasa and Nairobi branches while the retrenchment will affect all cadres of staff from the affected branches as well as at the head office in Nairobi.

The firm said turnover and commission income at the NSE drop by 75 per cent.

Mwebesa said the firm will ensure clients experience minimal disruption as they invest and trade on the NSE.

"We are contacting all clients in these four branches and offering them the option of dealing with the 21 agents we have in these areas," said Mwebesa.

"We are committed to our clients, and we shall do everything to ease the transition from branch based to agency and Internet based trading," he added.