Credit Suisse cuts 75 London jobs

by Gill Montia

Story link: Credit Suisse cuts 75 London jobs

Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, is reducing staff numbers in its UK investment banking division by 75.

The bank, which has its UK operations headquartered in London’s Canary Wharf, is blaming market conditions for its latest round of job cuts, having already reduced the headcount in its investment banking unit by around 1,000 this year.

The job losses will also add to the 170 redundancies announced for the same division in 2007 and the 150 in its mortgage-backed securities operations.

In April, Credit Suisse posted its first quarterly loss for five years. The £1.06 billion deficit was well beyond analysts’ expectations and followed writedowns on leveraged finance and other debt of £2.6 billion.

During the quarter Credit Suisse also shocked the banking sector by revealing that a group of derivatives traders had been deliberately mis-pricing its investments.

The disclosure damaged the reputation of the bank which had been seen as a safe haven for its private banking customers during a period of uncertain and volatile markets.

Further writedowns are expected this year, with analysts at Goldman Sachs putting the figure at around £566 million.