BLBG:Goldman Leads Foreign Banks Accelerating Job Cuts In Japan
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) led major foreign banks in Japan in accelerating job cuts last fiscal year as employees relocated to other Asian financial centers and firms trimmed costs to cope with a worldwide industry slump.
The number of staff at nine global banks in Japan fell by 537, or 7.3 percent, to a combined 6,796 as of March 31, more than double the previous year’s 3.2 percent reduction, according to company filings to the Financial Services Agency.
Wall Street and European banks have been eliminating jobs and transferring staff from Japan to Hong Kong and Singapore to reduce expenses as the euro region’s debt woes dent global investor confidence. The worst may be over as Japan recovers from last year’s nuclear crisis and some U.S. firms start hiring junior bankers for mergers advice and asset management, said Katsunobu Komizo, a Tokyo-based recruiting consultant.
“Overseas banks made deep cuts from October to March due to the Fukushima and European shocks, especially in investment banking such as equity underwriting,” said Komizo, president of Executive Search Partners Co. “But we’ve past the peak.”
Stock underwriting in Japan suffered last year as companies shunned capital markets after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that left 19,000 people dead or missing and caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant north of Tokyo. Public offerings fell to 1.2 trillion yen ($15 billion) in the year ended March from 4 trillion yen a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Most Expensive
The yen touched a postwar high of 75.35 against the dollar in October, raising costs for overseas banks and their foreign staff. Tokyo is the world’s most expensive city for expatriates, according to ECA International’s Worldwide Cost of Living Survey conducted in March. Singapore is 32nd and Hong Kong 36th.
Goldman Sachs reduced Japan headcount by 14 percent to 847, the biggest cut among the banks, according to the New York-based firm’s filing e-mailed to Bloomberg News. Hiroko Matsumoto, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), Switzerland’s second-biggest lender, pared its Japan workforce by 8.6 percent to 540. Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) reduced 7.9 percent of its staff to 834 and BNP Paribas SA (BNP), France’s largest bank, cut 7.4 percent to 462.
Barclays (BARC) Plc, Citigroup Inc. (C), Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) also trimmed jobs in Japan, the filings show.
The nine firms posted combined profits in Japan of 2.9 billion yen for the fiscal year, recovering from losses of 118.6 billion yen a year earlier, the filings showed. Morgan Stanley (MS)’s local joint venture with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. led the gains with net income of 34.6 billion yen.
Barclays, the U.K.’s second-largest bank, posted net income of 5.5 billion yen, the second highest among the nine firms and up from 56 million yen a year earlier. Profit at Goldman Sachs in Japan fell to 4.7 billion yen from 18.1 billion yen.
To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net
