Bank of America has shot straight to the top of the job cuts league with a shake-up of their investment bank that will see 3,000 lose their jobs. Previously Lehman and UBS had been leading the pack in terms of the numbers of their staff destined for the door.
Most of the losses will come from the corporate and investment bank, which has about 20,000 workers, and include the departure of investment banking chief, Gene Taylor, a 38-year veteran of the group.
What is not yet is clear is what kind of pain the City has in store. BofA did not disclose how many cuts would come in the UK or elsewhere in Europe, where the bank has about 2,600 employees.
Yet despite the pain around Wall Street, and the squeeze on bonus accruals at Merrill in its Q3 numbers, one bank seemingly remains untouchable.
Goldman Sachs, reports Bloomberg, promoted a record 299 people to managing director, the company’s second- highest rank after partner. This crop of elevations is up from the 262 MDs named last year. Goldman last year also promoted 115 to partner, a process that only rolls around every two years.
Fifty- seven percent of the new managing directors work outside the Americas (with 30 per cent in Europe) and 19 percent are women.
And Goldman set aside $16.9bn to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses in the first nine months of the year, says Bloomberg, surpassing the record for all of last year.
The bad news so far:
Bank of America - 3,000 to go, primarily from the investment bank
Bear Stearns - 240 jobs have gone from its US mortgage origination units, primarily in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Watch out for more tomorrow in the bank’s update to investors. Update - CNBC on Wednesday (3/10) reported that the bank was laying off a further 300 mortgage workers - confirmed as 310 more losses in its mortgage operations.
Citi - Tom Maheras, who ran all Citi’s capital markets operations, leaves as part of a management shake-up, as does Randy Barker, co-head of fixed income. Citi is part of the way through a cost-cutting programme that will see 17,000 leave the bank.
Credit Suisse - Total now 220. Investment banking will lose 170, mostly in New York [via AP]. That comes on top of the 150 jobs to go in the bank’s mortgage-backed securities unit, many of which were mortgage staff outside New York but with some from the main trading floor.
Deutsche Bank - no word on job cuts in the bank’s statement on Wednesday. But the IHT [via Banker’s Ball] reported that Josef Ackermann said in an interview on German TV last month that the bank was scaling back hiring plans, and would probably not proceed with plans to hire 6 per cent more people.
HSBC - restructuring of US mortgage business with the loss of 750 jobs
JPMorgan - 10 per cent, or around 100 jobs, to go in structured credit and leveraged finance.
Lehman - The biggest absolute number so far: more than 2,500 mortgage-related jobs. It initially closed its subprime mortgage unit, with a loss of 1,200 jobs, and said it would cut another 850 jobs as it restructures its mortgage business in the US, which would take the bulk of the losses, with smaller numbers shed in the UK and in Korea.
Merrill Lynch - job losses in the First Franklin mortgage origination business. In October, the London-based head of fixed-income trading, Osman Semerci, and Dale Lattanzio, head of structured credit products were ousted. CNBC reports rumours (04/10) of a 15 per cent cut within fixed income - but adds that the bank will wait and see what happens in the markets before making decisions on further cuts.
Morgan Stanley - 600 jobs to go in the global mortgage business, with 500 cut in the US, and about 90 lost in its UK subsidiary, Advantage. 300 banking jobs to go, primarily from fixed income, with about 200 of those coming from the US.
Nomura - Will reduce US headcount by 400 with the closure of its US RMBS business
UBS - Senior changes with the departure of Huw Jenkins, head of the investment bank, and Clive Standish, CFO. Jobs cuts of 1,500 in investment banking concentrated on fixed income units in London and New York. The Telegraph initially reported that “the bulk” of those will hit London - yikes! - but don’t panic, in a later story the paper said that about 350 were expected to come in the capital.
