Barclays axes Hong Kong investment banking jobs
One in seven workers in bank's Asian offices, including senior staff, to be made redundant in global downsizing
Barclays, Britain's second-biggest lender, began to cut more than 80 employees in its Asian offices yesterday, as part of the firm's global efforts to downsize its investment banking business.
The job cuts, mostly in Hong Kong and Singapore, account for about 15 per cent of Barclay's regional workforce of roughly 600 full-time staff, according to people familiar with the situation. They said most of the departures happened yesterday.
Affected employees are expected to get compensation ranging from a month's to three months' salary, depending on rank and years of service, the sources said.
The learned from sources that 12 equities researchers and three members of the equity sales team were made redundant.
Most of the Hong Kong-based senior and mid-rank managers at the financial institutions group (FIG), specialists in financing and mergers and acquisitions, were eliminated, mainly because of a weak deal pipeline.
Several Hong Kong-based senior positions have been hit in this round of cuts. Two managing directors, Nina Zhou and Jeff Walker, who were responsible for the FIG division, have been let go.
