100 HK employees axed by Daiwa Securities
Daiwa Securities, Japan's No 2 brokerage by revenue, gave its Hong Kong office a nasty shock on Wednesday - letting more than 100 employees go in one of the largest lay-offs of bankers in the city's finance sector so far this year.
According to people briefed on the matter, most of the jobs were cut from Daiwa's investment banking business in the city. There were also more than a dozen jobs cut from its Hong Kong-based Asia research team and back office.
The round of lay-offs follows an announcement at the end of January that the Tokyo-headquartered securities firm would cut a further 200 jobs in addition to 300 jobs that were to be shed outside of its Japan operation to save costs after it reported losses for a fourth consecutive quarter.
News of the big lay-offs in Daiwa's Hong Kong office were leaked to the public after working hours on Wednesday and spread widely via e-mail and online postings in the local financial community. Although the plan to cut jobs outside Japan was announced earlier, the size of the additional lay-offs and the speed with which it happened came as a surprise to some industry executives.
'That's a lot - now the only question I think that every banker in the city may want to ask is who will be next [to announce layoffs] in the financial industry,' said an executive with another international firm that has an office in Hong Kong.
Daiwa's move follows staff cuts made in recent weeks at the Hong Kong offices of other investment banks, including Swiss-based UBS, Australia's Macquarie, and South Korea's Samsung Securities. Japan's Mizuho announced earlier this month that it planned to cut 300 jobs at its brokerage arm. Mizuho also has an office in Hong Kong.
Finance sector workers who can escape the jobs axe have other thing to worry about. Investment banks have slashed the 2011 bonuses paid to staff in Asia by 30 to 40 per cent compared with 2010 payouts, and scrapped some non-cash benefits including housing allowances and free home leave for expatriate employees, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this week.
According to a recent survey of 562 financial services workers by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, 36 per cent said they would consider changing employers if they were disappointed with this year's bonus.
