Malaysia's CIMB plans to cut about 50 Asia jobsCIMB, Malaysia's second-largest lender, plans to cut about 50 jobs in Asia to trim costs, sources said.
The reductions involved mostly equities-related positions in places including Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and South Korea, they said.
"The realities of today's capital markets" required the bank to make changes, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, the acting chief executive, said in an e-mailed statement that did not refer to the number of jobs being eliminated.
The Kuala Lumpur-based company is reducing costs after previously expanding by purchasing some Royal Bank of Scotland operations in 2012. Tougher regulations and higher capital requirements are putting pressure on financial firms globally, with Standard Chartered, CLSA and Nomura among those to cut staff in Asia.
"Banks everywhere are now
cutting costs," said Dickie Wong, an executive director of research at Kingston Financial in Hong Kong, adding that more reductions loomed amid weak market sentiment in places including Europe and Southeast Asia.
CIMB, which took part in failed talks for a merger to establish Malaysia's biggest bank, said last month it planned to reduce investment-banking costs by about 30 per cent this year in anticipation of slower growth. The latest staff reductions are in addition to CIMB closing its Australian offices, affecting 103 jobs, a move announced on February 9.
CIMB was part of a plan for a three-way merger with RHB Capital and Malaysia Building Society. The deal would have seen CIMB's assets climb to 614 billion ringgit (HK$1.32 trillion), 6 per cent bigger than larger rival Maybank. After the deal was scrapped in January, CIMB said it would seek only minor takeovers as part of its efforts to expand in Southeast Asia.
Standard Chartered said last month that it was shutting its unprofitable institutional equities business globally, eliminating 200 jobs, mostly in Asia. Chief executive Peter Sands pledged to eliminate about 4,000 consumer banking jobs worldwide as part of a plan to cut US$400 million in costs this year.
Japan's Nomura cut about 12 Asia equities jobs, a source said in January. CLSA, a Hong Kong-based brokerage, was also trimming staff numbers, another source said. About 25 CLSA staff were affected, mainly in equities, the source said, adding that the reductions amounted to about 2 per cent of the firm's global workforce.
Not everyone is cutting. Haitong International Securities, a unit of a mainland brokerage, said in January it was looking at hiring more staff in Hong Kong, including workers fired by global firms.
Source: http://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/1727088/malaysias-cimb-plans-cut-about-50-asia-jobs
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