INVESTMENT bankers in Asia fear more job cuts in the next few weeks, having largely escaped the latest global layoffs that hit colleagues in other regions.

Layoffs in the industry could soon slice more than 1,000 jobs in Wall Street and European banks in Asia, sources said. Several hundred were wiped out in Hong Kong the past month.

"It sounds like it's already starting to get bloody," said a Hong Kong hedge-fund manager, who declined to be named.

Among the banks likely to be hit hard is Merrill Lynch, sources said. Its job reductions in Asia so far have been relatively small, and the bank is weeks away from being absorbed by the Bank of America.

But Merrill is not alone, said sources who asked not to be named, as they work at investment banks. They said Goldman Sachs, even after recent layoffs in Asia, is not done yet.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have also shed jobs in Asia and, while some sources said they can maintain headcount levels through the first quarter, others are not so sure.

Globally, the first and second quarters of next year are expected by bankers to be worse than the last two.

The corporate scythe set to swing through Asia's investment- banking industry highlights how quickly growth has slowed or stopped across banking divisions in a region that was thought to be thriving less than a year ago.

A banker who was in Asia during the regional financial crisis a decade ago said banks cut around 50 per cent of investment-banking jobs then.

For some banks, the layoffs this time round will be part of previously-announced plans. For others, the cuts will be new, said sources.