Royal Bank of Canada's investment banking arm held a round of layoffs in the U.S., according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The RBC Capital Markets division cut 1% of its U.S. investment banking team, which has about 1,000 people, with the reductions focused on junior staff, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel changes. The moves were in keeping with RBC's standard annual changes, one of the people said.
"We can confirm that we made minimal cuts to our U.S. investment banking business which were in line with our normal attrition," said Elisa Barsotti, a spokeswoman for the bank.
RBC joins competitors including Bank of Montreal and Goldman Sachs Group in eliminating jobs amid steep revenue declines in areas such as debt and equity issuance. RBC still plans to hire aggressively at the senior level, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
RBC Capital Markets Chief Executive Officer Derek Neldner said earlier this year that the bank planned to hire a similar number of managing directors as last year, when it added 25.
