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The Wall Street Journal Citigroup Plans Aggressive Layoffs In Its Investment Bank By DAVID ENRICH and DENNIS K. BERMAN June 23, 2008 Citigroup Inc., in the latest sign of bloodletting on Wall Street, is set this week to embark on an aggressive round of layoffs within its investment-banking division, people familiar with the matter said. The New York bank -- which has suffered $15 billion in losses... [more]

The Wall Street Journal Citigroup Plans Aggressive Layoffs In Its Investment Bank By DAVID ENRICH and DENNIS K. BERMAN June 23, 2008 Citigroup Inc., in the latest sign of bloodletting on Wall Street, is set this week to embark on an aggressive round of layoffs within its investment-banking division, people familiar with the matter said. The New York bank -- which has suffered $15 billion in losses over the past two quarters and is likely to rack up billions of dollars in additional losses in the second quarter -- plans to dismiss as much as 10% of its world-wide investment-banking work force of roughly 65,000, the people said. The first batch of pink slips are likely to be handed out Monday. "Citi indicated earlier this year that it would be resizing this business in response to market conditions and as part of our ongoing re-engineering efforts," spokesman Dan Noonan said, without confirming specifics of the coming layoffs. Across Wall Street, investment banks are adjusting to meager times as they deal with a dropoff in everything from mergers to initial public offerings. Citigroup, which has more than 350,000 employees around the world, had fired at least 9,000 workers as of March 31. But the coming cuts are unusual in their scope and severity. The firm's mergers-and-acquisitions bankers are expected to see especially sharp cuts, in part because the group's ranks weren't trimmed as much as other units earlier this year. But no major department of the investment bank is likely to be spared, aside from some businesses in emerging markets and Citigroup's lucrative transactions-services arm. Entire trading desks in New York and other cities are expected to be eliminated. And unlike Citigroup's other recent reductions, this round will feature layoffs of dozens of senior managing directors, the people said. The cuts are the first big move by John Havens, who took the helm of Citigroup's institutional-clients group, which includes the investment bank, in late March. Mr. Havens, a longtime lieutenant of Citigroup Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, has concluded that some of the investment bank's businesses have been rendered obsolete by the credit crunch, while he sees others as operating inefficiently and generating inadequate returns. Mr. Pandit's goal is to reduce the firm's annual expenses by $15 billion. [less]