“(Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc will begin its annual job cutting process as early as this week, sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, with its equities-trading business bracing for bigger cuts than fixed-income trading.
The bank usually culls out the weakest 5 percent of its employees around now. But the cuts will likely be deeper in some businesses, particularly equities trading, where volumes and earnings are weak. The number of shares traded on major U.S. exchanges so far this year is down 7.2 percent.
Fixed-income trading at Goldman, which took big hits last year but has had better volumes this year, will likely see cuts of less than 5 percent, the sources said.
In totality, cuts across the company will be roughly in line with Goldman’s typical 5 percent culling and are not part of a bigger cost-cutting plan, one source said.
“As market activity has picked up in certain areas, we remain focused on prudently managing expenses and allocating resources to ensure we are best able to meet our clients’ needs and generate good returns for our shareholders,” said Goldman spokesman David Wells, who declined to comment on layoffs.
The cuts underscore how even as Wall Street shows some signs of recovering, banks are looking to thin their ranks to boost profitability.
Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, and UBS AG, have been cutting staff for the past few years, after revenue has been under pressure in multiple businesses. Regulations, meanwhile, are increasing banks’ costs….”
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