McKinney Execublog

Under normal circumstances the banking industry has been a great industry for hiring and placing executives. However, recently many multinational banks with businesses in Asia-Pacific have been laying off employees. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, 10 of such banks have been identified. Is this the beginning or the ending of a trend for this industry for 2012 when so many other indicators are pointing in a positive direction? Check out below what these 10 banks have been doing lately.

Wall Street Journal: Many Banks Are Reducing Their Workforces

Wall Street Journal

January 21, 2012

1) Australia & New Zealand Banking Group plans to cut around 130 positions in its commercial and retail operations because of wholesale funding cost pressures and a subdued economic environment. The restructuring at ANZ, Australia's third-largest lender by market capitalization, will affect jobs based in Victoria state and are back-office roles.

2) Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentina, Laid off about 29 employees—or one-third of its global-markets staff in Asia—at its Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan offices in December. The layoffs are part of global cutbacks by the bank that have reduced wholesale banking staff by 150 and amount to 4% of BBVA's wholesale banking work force globally.

3) Bank of America Merrill Lynch will cut 20% of managing directors in investment banking in Asia-Pacific by the end of the first quarter. About 15 of 75 managing directors will be affected. Among the most senior to be cut has been Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia joint head of mergers and acquisitions Michael Cho, who was joint head of M&A for Asia excluding Japan, India and Australia.

4) Citigroup cut just under 40 positions in Singapore over the fourth quarter across its markets, investment banking and private banking businesses, a person familiar with the situation said. Citigroup said in December it will eliminate roughly 4,500 jobs over the next few quarters, or about 1.6% of its global work force. Citi cut thousands of jobs during the financial crisis but had been hiring globally until mid-2011.

5) Credit Suisse Group will lay off 20 employees, including its entire fixed-income sales and trading desk, in Taiwan after dropping a plan to establish an onshore private-banking business there.

6) HSBC said in a memo in September 2011 that it plans to cut about 3,000 jobs, mainly in "support functions" at its Asian headquarters in Hong Kong over the next three years. The cuts are part of 25,000 jobs HSBC said in August 2011 it will eliminate by 2013. The lender has already cut 5,000 jobs in the U.S., U.K., France, Latin America and the Middle East.

7) In a reshuffle, U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley is cutting 80 back-office positions in Singapore as part of measures to streamline its operations and is offering relocations, mainly to India and Hungary, people familiar with the situation said in November 2011. In mid-December, Morgan Stanley said it expects to cut 1,600 positions globally in the first quarter of 2012.

8) Nomura announced $1.2 billion in cost cuts in November. In early January, Jasjit "Jesse" Bhattal, the bank's highest-ranking foreign executive and joint deputy president, resigned, as did the London-based head of the global markets division, Tarun Jotwani. Global markets spans fixed-income and equities trading. Nomura laid off Nipun Goel, its India investment banking head, and Indraneil Borkakoty, head of India equity capital markets, in late 2011.

9) RBS said in January it will eliminate 3,500 jobs globally and exit cash equities—or research, sales and trading—as well as corporate brokering, equity capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions, all of which it says are unprofitable. It didn't give a geographic breakdown for the cuts, but RBS operates in 11 countries in Asia, with more than 3,400 staff across all its businesses in the region excluding its wealth management operations.

10) Societe Generale, the French bank is cutting around 100 jobs in Asia, mainly in aircraft financing, shipping, real estate and leveraged finance, as part of plans to cut almost 1,600 staff, or 13% of the headcount, globally. It began the cuts in late 2011. SocGen had 2,300 staff in Asia at the end of November 2011.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577168271032004132.html?mod=WSJAsia_hps_RIGHTTopCarousel_5