Receiving Wide Coverage ...
Cuts, Cuts … and More Cuts: Banks continue to downsize staff. According to three separate reports from the Financial Times, Commerzbank plans to cut between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs through 2016 in order to turn around its underperforming domestic retail business; UniCredit plans to cut 1,000 jobs at its German unit HvB by 2014 for similar reasons and Lloyds Banking Group is adding another 940 positions to previously announced job cuts set to take place "across the group" as part of a cost saving program. Meanwhile, the Journal reports the Barclays investments unit job cuts, mentioned in yesterday's Scan, are taking place in Asia. Reports of layoffs at big banks, unfortunately, have become a theme of late. Earlier this month, news broke that Amex was set to eliminate 5,400 jobs, or 8.5% of its staff. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have also made moves to reduce staff recently.
Wall Street Journal
Cecelia Stewart — Citi's president of U.S. retail and commercial banking and the lone woman among its 24-member operating committee — is "under pressure" to deliver results, according to the paper. The article counts poor customer-satisfaction rankings compiled by J.D. Power & Associates, a recent quarter-to-quarter drop in earnings, insufficient computer systems, "some of which date to the 1970s" and the loss of long-time Citi customer Adam Greenfield among the evidence that the bank's retail overhaul is "still lagging."
Financial Times
The list of Barclays executives involved in a High Court case over Libor is out, following a failed attempt to suppress its release. It includes senior executives Bob Diamond, John Varley, Jerry del Missier, current chief financial officer Chris Lucas and current head of investment banking Rich Ricci.
JPMorgan Chase has named Cindy Armine, the bank's co-chief control officer, as its new global head of compliance. She will replace Martha Gallo, JPMorgan's compliance chief for more than two years. Gallo will remain with the bank, though her new role remains unclear.
New York Times
A new document indicates AIG decided not to join a lawsuit against the federal government over its bailout terms because victory was a long shot and it "threatened to destroy much of the good work that AIG and its employees had done rebuilding AIG and its name and reputation."
Probably the biggest change we have to get used to is to begin to view employees as valued assets and to give significant attention to retention, not just once a year at performance review time but on a daily and weekly basis. The assumption that employees will work for us for a paycheck and that we can exert leverage in the management situation because of agen bola | seo india a large labor pool we can tap to replace unhappy employees has become a flawed approach to people management.