Banks Temper Job Cutting After Surge in 2011 Reductions: Table

The world’s largest banks are slowing the rate of large-scale job cuts after eliminations surged 14 months ago, when Europe’s debt crisis escalated.

Twenty-two of the 50 biggest banks have announced plans to eliminate at least 1,000 positions each since the start of August 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. More than 22,500 cuts were disclosed this year. That compares with about 106,000 in last year’s final five months.

Personnel levels are stabilizing as analysts predict financial results will improve for the six largest U.S. lenders. Profit at those firms may total $59 billion this year, a 5.5 percent increase from 2011, according to the average estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“Financial services are getting back to some sort of norm,” said Jeanne Branthover, head of the financial-services practice at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd., a New York- based recruiting firm. “They don’t want to be as volatile, and they’re really trying to handle their hiring and firing better.”

Still, banks are grappling with a European debt crisis now in its fourth year and more uncertainty as the U.S. faces a fiscal cliff in early 2013, when automatic tax increases and budget cuts are set to siphon billions of dollars of purchasing power from the economy.

Analysts predict job losses in Western Europe will increase amid a slump in trading and stock and bond offerings. Wall Street firms will reduce bonuses rather than cut jobs to control expenses this year, Betsy Graseck, a Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst, said last month in a Bloomberg Television interview.

The following table lists 22 banks that announced at least 1,000 job cuts since Aug. 1, 2011, according to company statements and data compiled by Bloomberg. The table draws from public announcements and omits anonymously sourced reports of cuts. Some reductions are being made over months and years. For firms that disclosed reduction ranges, the table reflects the top limit:

Bank                     Job Cuts                 Job Cuts
                         Announced Aug.-          Announced in
                         Dec. 2011                2012

Allied Irish                                      2,500
Banks Plc, Ireland

Australia & New Zealand                           1,000
Banking Group Ltd.,
Australia

Banca Monte dei Paschi                            4,600
di Siena SpA, Italy

Bank of America Corp.,   33,500
U.S.

Barclays Plc, U.K.       3,000                      622

BNP Paribas SA, France   1,396

Citigroup Inc., U.S.     4,500                      500

Credit Agricole SA,      2,350
France

Credit Suisse Group      1,500
AG, Switzerland

Danske Bank A/S,         2,000
Denmark

Deutsche Bank AG,          500                    1,900
Germany

HSBC Holdings Plc,      30,330
U.K.

ING Groep NV,            2,700*                     130
Netherlands

Intesa Sanpaolo SpA,     5,000
Italy

Mizuho Financial Group   3,700                      300
Inc., Japan

Morgan Stanley, U.S.     1,600                      700

National Australia                                1,400
Bank Ltd., Australia

Nordea Bank AB,          2,000
Sweden

Royal Bank of Scotland   2,500                    7,342
Group Plc, U.K.

Societe Generale SA,                              1,580
France

UBS AG, Switzerland      3,500

UniCredit SpA, Italy     6,150

*Includes 700 contract positions

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Marcinek in New York at lmarcinek3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.

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Banks Temper Job Cutting After Surge in 2011 Reductions

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Personnel levels are stabilizing as analysts predict financial results will improve for the six largest U.S. lenders.

Personnel levels are stabilizing as analysts predict financial results will improve for the six largest U.S. lenders. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg