Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. lender by deposits, cut part of its top-ranked Merrill Lynch & Co. equities division in Europe and reduced its sales and trading team in Dubai by 40 percent, people with knowledge of the situation said.
The cuts in Europe yesterday affected specialist sales and generalist sales, said two people, who declined to be identified because the information isn't public. They didn't provide a number of positions affected. In Dubai, the bank reduced the group to six from 10, according to another person.
Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender over the next few years to reduce costs by $5 billion annually by the end of 2013. Job cuts in Europe are gathering pace this week as firms from BNP Paribas SA to UniCredit SpA eliminate jobs after the European sovereign debt crisis eroded revenue from trading stocks and bonds.
Spokesmen for Bank of America in London weren't immediately available to comment. Merrill Lynch was voted top broker for equity research this year and third-ranked for equity sales in Thomson Extel's annual survey of European brokerages.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas, France's largest bank, plans to eliminate about 1,400 jobs at its corporate and investment banking unit, Joel Debeausse, an official of the SNB union said today. UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank, this week closed its research, sales and trading division for western European equities. The lender plans to concentrate its core markets of Germany, Italy, Poland and Austria.
Citigroup Inc. may cut as many as 3,000 jobs in part of a cost-reduction drive, said a person familiar with the company's plans. Competitors including Britain's Barclays PLC and Switzerland's Credit Suisse Group AG have also cut jobs.
