Credit Suisse employees in London will be told this week their jobs are at risk, following a cost cutting commitment in October 2015, according to reports.
Up to 1,800 Credit Suisse employees based in London are set to become the latest casualties as investment banks across the US and UK release performance results for Q4 2015.
As fourth quarter and annual results are being released, Citigroup and JP Morgan are among the investment banks that have announced a fall in revenues for fixed income, commodities and currencies compared to 2014.
In October, Credit Suisse released third quarter results and stated: “Fixed income sales and trading revenues declined significantly compared to a strong 3Q14 as material credit market volatility resulted in low client activity in 3Q15.”
Credit Suisse made plans to, “target net cost savings of CHF 2 billion to reduce absolute cost base to between CHF 18.5-19 billion by end-2018.”
Management strategies Credit Suisse outlined to achieve this included: “Making a number of disposals and closures. As Credit Suisse’s footprint is increasingly streamlined with a focus on profitable growth, service models in Western Europe will be adjusted to make our business more efficient.”
Tidjane Thiam, chief executive officer at Credit Suisse, said in October: “The strategy and restructuring, and our determination to reduce our cost base via the rightsizing of a number of our activities, coupled with some disposals and closures, will ensure our future competitiveness, the only guarantee of a long and successful future.”
A spokesperson for Credit Suisse speaking to The TRADE said: “In November we cut 100 employees in London in fixed income, but this is an on-going process.
1,800 staff are likely to be relocated from London in future as Credit Suisse aims to reduce costs by CHF 3.5 billion by 2018.”