Layoffs Watch '12: Citigroup

As promised, new CEO Mike Corbat will be firing a few thousand people as part of the bank's weight reduction program.

Author:: Bess Levin
Updated:: Jul 2, 2019
Original:: Dec 5, 2012

As promised, new CEO Mike Corbat will be firing a few thousand people as part of the bank's weight reduction program.

Citigroup said it will take a pretax charge of about $1 billion this quarter as part of a plan to eliminate more than 11,000 jobs. “These actions are logical next steps in Citi’s transformation,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said today in a statement. “While we are committed to -- and our strategy continues to leverage -- our unparalleled global network and footprint, we have identified areas and products where our scale does not provide for meaningful returns. The plan will eliminate about 1,900 jobs in the institutional clients group, New York-based Citigroup said. It’s intended to ‘‘improve overall productivity in our markets business, especially in areas experiencing continued low profitability, such as cash equities.’’ About 6,200 jobs will come from the global consumer banking business at the company, Citigroup said. An additional 2,600 jobs will be eliminated in the operations and technology group and global functions.

Citigroup to Take $1 Billion Charge, Cut 11,000 Jobs [Bloomberg]
Related: Mike Corbat Will Torch The Fat Off Citi Like He Torched The Fat Off His Abs

Back in October, new Citi CEO Mike Corbat's personal trainer predicted that Vikram Pandit's replacement would waste no time whipping the place into shape, just like he whipped himself into shape in 2010 with the fat-torching Spartacus Workout. Whereas someone else might've let the bank have until the new year to get serious, allowing for one last season of pigs in a blanket and egg nog and late night pizza and entire gingerbread houses, Citi's day's of "I'll start the diet tomorrow" are over. Corbat's transformation plan starts TODAY.

The House Of Corbat is preparing to say some tough goodbyes.

The bank has reportedly been having some awkward conversations today.

Cuts are said to be going down at the House of Corbat.

Like Bank of America, RBS has some big goals for the coming year, chief among them being the firing of several thousand investment bankers. (For those skeptical they can do it, according to a PowerPoint presentation presented yesterday, re: the "exits," quite a bit of progress has already been made.) Royal Bank of Scotland, Britain’s biggest government-owned lender, said it will cut 300 more jobs at its investment banking unit and is “on track” with its plan to exit businesses. RBS will eliminate 3,800 jobs at the division by the fourth quarter of next year, compared with an earlier target of 3,500, according to slides based on a presentation delivered by John Hourican, chief of markets and international banking, to analysts Monday. About 3,000 of the cuts will have completed this year, RBS said...The bank’s control of costs is “ongoing,” said Chris Kyle, chief financial officer of markets and international banking, at the presentation. “We will almost certainly hit this year’s number” in terms of the guidance, he said. Royal Bank Of Scotland Cuts 300 More Jobs At Investment Bank [Bloomberg] RBS Markets Investor Roundtable [RBS]

Cuts are said to have gone down with more a-comin'. Barclays PLC is cutting about 50 employees from its equities business, the latest effort by the British bank to reduce costs at its investment-banking arm. A week ago, the U.K. lender announced internally that about 10% of the jobs at its equities business across Europe, Africa and the Middle East would be lost, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. During the first half of the year, Barclays's equities and prime services business, which employs about 500 people, saw revenue fall 12% on the year to £973 million ($1.57 billion). The business has suffered as market volumes have dried up in recent quarters...The work-force reduction could be a taste of things to come for Barclays's investment bank. At the beginning of 2009, former Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond hired more than 400 bankers, mainly in equities and research, as part of a drive to turn the predominately debt-focused bank into a multi-asset powerhouse. Following Mr. Diamond's departure in the wake of a rate-fixing probe, new CEO Antony Jenkins has started a review of the bank's businesses to assess their profitability and whether and how they affect the lender's reputation. This, combined with tougher regulatory requirements, is expected to result in Barclays shrinking its investment bank, analysts say. Barclays To Cut 50 Equities Jobs [WSJ]

The company is still in the firing phase of the rebuilding process. Nomura Holdings cut a team of London proprietary traders focused on stocks as Japan’s largest brokerage scales back in Europe, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The group of about five traders was part of Nomura’s Angel Lane Principal Strategies, a unit that makes speculative wagers on markets with capital provided by the Tokyo-based bank, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the job cuts haven’t been announced. The team departing this week was led by Anthony Medina, a volatility trader who used options to bet on fluctuations in the prices of stocks, the people said. The departures are part of Nomura’s plan to reduce costs by $1 billion, with almost half the savings coming from Europe. The revamp in strategy follows a four-year struggle to build a business overseas following the purchase of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European and Asian units in 2008. Nomura Said To Cut Team Of Proprietary Traders Focused On Stocks [Bloomberg]

For those worried they'd fallen behind.