Global banks are joining the efforts to offset economic headwinds from a persistent pandemic, signaling suspensions and slowdowns of previously announced job cuts.
At the end of last year, more than 50 banks announced plans for a combined 77,780 job cuts – a record-high since 2015’s 91,448. But a persistent coronavirus pandemic has led banks to take action and delay the culling of jobs.
Citigroup and Morgan Stanley were the latest banks to join the efforts, according to a «Bloomberg» report, with the latter American lender’s chief executive James Gorman saying in a memo that no reductions would be in force for the full year with the exception of performance issues or code of conduct breaches. Reports added that Citi last year said it would cut «hundreds» of trading jobs while Morgan Stanley had planned to cut 1,500 by 2020-end.
80 Percent Delayed
Just last week, Noel Quinn, chief executive of HSBC which represented nearly half of the announced job losses (35,000), announced that a temporary pause to the «vast majority» of cuts to «better support our people during the present uncertainty».
HSBC, Citi and Morgan Stanley are also joined by the likes of Deutsche Bank, which represented announced 18,000 job cuts targeted for completion by 2022-end, Commerzbank (4,300 jobs) and Societe Generale (2,100 jobs) in delaying their contribution to job losses in the midst of an economically crippling pandemic. Combined, the recently announced delays account for nearly 80 percent of 77,780 planned cuts.
«I don’t think it’s in this kind of situation that we’re going to announce restructuring measures,» said SocGen CEO Frederic Oudea in a conference last week. «There is a question of decency.»
UniCredit Proceeds
In addition to delaying job cuts, some banks have even provided payouts targeting employees in branches, call centers and other operation centers. American banks such as Citigroup JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have been the most notable contributors, providing payments of up to $1,000.
But elsewhere, other banks may not have the same luxury to dip into their own buffers to offset expected losses or support employees. And pf the major job cutters, UniCredit will be among the rare banks that will proceed as planned.
The Italian lender announced in 2019-end that it would cut 8,000 jobs – the second-most amongst European banks – and it will now target 6,000 jobs in its home country. UniCredit is reportedly in talks with worker representatives and expectations are for cuts to mostly derive from attrition and early retirement.
