THE Singapore office of Credit Suisse is the latest bank here to swing the axe, with a sizeable chunk of its workforce set to be laid off this month.
The Swiss bank has not revealed exact numbers but its Asia-Pacific chief executive, Mr Kai Nargolwala, said the losses would be 'mostly in the mid- single digits'.
That could mean as many as 250 workers will be laid off given that Credit Suisse employs around 5,000 staff in Singapore at One Raffles Link, Changi Business Park and One Raffles Quay.
Its Hong Kong branch, which employs about 2,000 people, will also face cuts.
And top executives in the region will get their bonus payments trimmed, in some cases losing them altogether.
The layoffs and cost cuts are part of a global restructuring exercise by Credit Suisse. The bank announced yesterday that it will slash 5,300 jobs, or 11 per cent of its total staff worldwide, after losses of about three billion Swiss francs (S$3.8 billion) in the first two months of this quarter.
The move will cut the bank's costs by two billion Swiss francs.
Mr Nargolwala told The Straits Times yesterday that there will be more layoffs here than in Hong Kong because the bank employs more people in Singapore, where many back office and support functions for its global business are performed. The job cuts will affect all levels of seniority.
'In most markets across Asia, we're talking about single-digit kind of job cuts, mostly in the mid-single digits,' he said over phone from Mumbai, where he is on a business trip.
Mr Nargolwala, 58, added that most job cuts - in Asia and globally - will be in the ailing investment banking business. But he did not specify whether there will be further layoffs.
'We wouldn't be in a situation where we'll want to give any kind of guarantee around that issue.
'And this is a fairly large number of cuts, and so we thought carefully about the business environment and what the requirements would be going forward,' he added.
Credit Suisse said yesterday that it will 'substantially reduce' the scale of its operations in more complex products and exit some areas of proprietary trading - or buying and selling on the bank's own book.
The dire earnings have also prompted top executives, including chairman Walter Kielholz, to waive year-end bonuses.
Hong Kong-based Mr Nargolwala said executives in the Asia-Pacific will not be spared. While their fixed compensation will not be cut - yet anyway - bonuses will be trimmed. 'In affected areas, it might be reduced all the way to zero, and in other cases, it might be significantly reduced,' he said.
While Mr Nargolwala admitted that his staff are anxious, most are 'involved in the business' and as a result, are realistic about the way the market environment has changed so dramatically.
'Many have come to me in the last few weeks to say that the bank needs to take some action because we clearly need to have a business that is well-positioned going into next year,' he said.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 05, 2008.
