Citigroup plans more job cuts

Citigroup Inc, the largest US bank, plans further job cuts in its securities operations in a bid to cut costs after subprime mortgage and credit problems led to a record quarterly loss, reports Reuters from New York.

Any job losses would be on top of 4,200 cuts companywide announced in January by Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, and 17,000 announced last April by predecessor Charles Prince. Citigroup has said it ended 2007 with 375,000 employees. “Each year we identify the bottom 5 per cent of performers in the institutional clients group, and some number of these people leave the firm,” spokesman Adam Castellani said on Thursday.

“This year, we will have a larger number of reductions as we continue to strengthen the business and lower our expense base.”

According to New York Times, citing people close to the situation, Citigroup plans to lay off 2,000 investment bankers and traders before the end of March.

Most cuts will be in New York and London, though other markets in Europe and Asia will be affected, the newspaper said. Traders are more at risk given market conditions, the newspaper said.

EBay rejig to see job cuts globally

EBay Inc is restructuring its operations worldwide which will lead to a small cut in global staffing levels with some countries being hit harder than others,  reports Reuters from Brussels.

“It’s less than 1 per cent globally,” Sravanthi Agrawal told Reuters, adding main countries affected by job cuts were in North America, Belgium, Spain and Austria.