Chase Unit Scaling Back Emerging-Markets Staff

Chase Manhattan Corp.'s securities unit is among the Wall Street firms cutting emerging-markets staff because of the global economic crises, a source familiar with the unit said.

Chase Securities fired four mid-level to junior people from its emerging-markets group in New York in late September and early October, the source said, and more cuts are expected. The people in question were in sales and trade support, the source said.

The source also said two proprietary traders from Chase's London emerging-markets operations have been fired, but traders in London denied any reduction in staff. A spokesman for Chase declined to comment.

The additional cuts are expected in the latter part of the fourth quarter among the new-issue employees group-those who interact with investment bankers to bring new issues to market. In 1997, this department had bulked up, but today it is doing a smaller percentage of the business it had a year ago. "Everyone is putting their resumes together," the source said.

The secondary-market deal flow of the operation has been only 10% of what it was six months earlier, the source said, adding that no new bonds, or primary issues, have occurred for the past three to four months.

Since August, emerging-market desks on Wall Street have been reduced because of a lack of buyers and sellers for bonds. The market was at a low point at the time of the layoffs.

The emerging-markets unit-comprising about 200 people in sales, research, and trading-reports to Jorge Jasson, managing director for Chase's international fixed-income division.