U.S. banks and financial service companies with banking operations are cutting tens of thousands of jobs.
Some have said they are reducing staffing to lower their costs. Others are doing so because interest rate changes have made it more difficult to profit from lending.
Still others are reacting to tightening credit conditions, especially for mortgage lending operations.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc, the consulting firm, said in August the U.S. financial industry had announced 87,962 job cuts this year, 75 percent more than in all of 2006. It said 35,830, or 41 percent, relate to housing market problems.
The following are some companies that have announced job cuts this year or are otherwise reducing staffing:
- Bank of America,the No. 2 U.S. bank, said it was cutting 3,000 jobs, a majority of them in corporate and investment banking, and the rest elsewhere. The cuts amount to 1.5 percent of the bank's 198,000-person work force.
- Bear Stearnssaid on Oct. 3 it was cutting 310 jobs in its mortgage origination businesses as part of a reorganization of its mortgage operations. It had said in August that it cut 240 subprime lending jobs.
- Credit Suisseon Sept. 26 cut 150 jobs in its mortgage-backed securities business.
- Capital One, an independent credit card issuer, said on Aug. 20 it will eliminate 1,900 jobs. In June, it announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs.
- Citigroupsaid on April 11 that it would eliminate 17,000 jobs and move an additional 9,500 jobs to lower-cost locations.
- Countrywide Financial, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, plans to cut 10,000 to 12,000 jobs, or up to 20 percent of its work force. It said on Oct. 16 that it expected a $125 million to $150 million pretax restructuring charge from the move.
- HSBC Holdings'U.S. mortgage unit said on Sept. 5 it would cut about 600 jobs.
- JPMorgan Chase, the No. 3 U.S. bank, is cutting 100 jobs across its global credit markets unit, or about 10 percent of that group's head count, people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Oct. 11.
- Lehman Brothers Holdingssaid it will fire another 850 workers, or about 3 percent of its work force. The cuts come after the investment bank said it was cutting 1,600 jobs.
- Morgan Stanley said on Oct. 17 it was cutting about 300 jobs in its institutional securities division, mostly in mortgages. On Oct. 2, it said it would restructure its residential mortgage business and cut about 600 employees.
- National City, the ninth-largest U.S. bank, said on Oct. 24 it is eliminating 2,500 jobs, 1,200 more than it disclosed the month before, after it merged its home equity and mortgage lending units.
- SunTrust Banks, the seventh-largest U.S. bank, said on Aug. 20 that it plans to eliminate about 2,400 jobs by the end of 2008.
- Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said on Aug. 28 it plans to eliminate about 2,000 of 2,600 jobs at the Richmond, Virginia headquarters of its Wachovia Securities brokerage unit as part of the company's acquisition of A.G. Edwards. The company also said recently it plans to eliminate about 200 investment banking jobs, or roughly 5 percent of its 3,900-strong investment banking operations.
- Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan, is laying off 1,000 employees as it copes with slumping housing demand.
- Wells Fargo, the fifth-largest U.S. bank, said on July 26 it would cut 170 jobs