Citigroup to Cut More Than 5% of Securities Employees

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:



Citigroup to Cut More Than 5% of Securities Employees (Update1)

By Joyce Moullakis

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, plans to cut more than 5 percent of staff in the securities unit to rein back expenses after U.S. subprime- mortgage related losses.

``Each year we identify the bottom 5 percent of performers in the institutional clients group, and some number of these people leave the firm,'' London-based spokesman Adam Castellani said in an interview today. ``This year we will have a larger number of reductions as we continue to strengthen the business and lower our expense base.''

Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit promoted former Morgan Stanley colleague John Havens this week to oversee the firm's trading, investment banking and hedge-fund units. The division posted a $4.6 billion loss last year, compared with a $8.4 billion profit, or almost 40 percent of the total, in 2006.

The New York-based company said in January it is cutting about 4,200 jobs and curbing year-end bonuses for top executives after $18.1 billion in writedowns on subprime home loans and bonds. The world's biggest financial firms have dismissed more than 30,000 workers in the last seven months and reported at least $195 billion in writedowns and losses. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=afXll_6WE4Rg&refer=home