Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse Group (CS: Quote) is planning to slash up to about one-third of senior jobs at its European investment banking department, according to media reports on Monday. The latest round of job cuts is part of the 3,500 job cuts announced last year.
The job cuts will reportedly see about 60 directors and managing directors lose their jobs. The layoffs are expected to begin in July and could continue over several months.
The company is under pressure from Swiss regulators to shore up its capital base after the regulator publicly urged it to do it faster than earlier plans before the European debt crisis intensifies further.
On November 1, the company revealed plans to cut an additional 3 percent of its workforce by the end of 2013, amid continued weakness at its investment banking business. The lender is targeting an additional 800 million francs of cost savings by the end of 2013 through the headcount reduction estimated to total about 1,500 and other measures.
This was in addition to plans announced in July 2011 that included a headcount reduction of about 2,000 or 4 percent of workforce, which are now expected to achieve 1.2 billion francs in cost savings, higher than the company's estimate of 1 billion francs.
Credit Suisse confirmed in March 2012 that it has already eliminated about 2,000 of these 3,500 jobs. These included the elimination of 268 jobs in the New York metropolitan region, and about 50 jobs after the shut down of its commercial mortgage-backed securities group.
Another Swiss banking giant and Credit Suisse's domestic rival UBS AG (UBS: Quote) said in August 2011 it would reduce about 3,500 jobs as part of its already announced plans to cut costs of about 2 billion Swiss francs annually by the end of 2013.
CS closed Monday's regular trading session at $18.09, down $0.71 or 3.78% on a volume of 1.38 million shares.
 | | To receive FREE breaking news email alerts for Credit Suisse Group and others in your portfolio |
|
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News