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Reduction over nine months is most since 2001. Subprime crisis pressures mortgage departments
By Yalman Onaran
Bloomberg News
Published on Tuesday, Mar 25, 2008
Wall Street banks hit by mortgage losses and write-downs have cut more than 34,000 jobs in the past nine months, the most since the Internet stock boom fizzled in 2001.
Citigroup Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley are among the firms that have disclosed head-count reductions so far. After the Internet bubble burst, 39,800 jobs were eliminated during the same period; the number climbed to 90,000 in the next two years, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market last year and the ensuing credit contraction have saddled the world's largest financial institutions with at least $200 billion of write-downs and losses. Bear Stearns & Co., once the fifth-biggest U.S.
securities firm, became the emblem of panic on Wall Street when it was forced to submit to an emergency takeover backed by the Federal Reserve as clients and lenders deserted the company. More bank losses are likely, analysts say.
''This crisis is much worse than 2001 and we don't know how long it's going to last,'' said Jo Bennett, a partner at executive search firm Battalia Winston International in New York. Job cuts ''could be more than 100,000 in a few years.''
Securities firms started eliminating positions in mortgage departments beginning last July, when rising delinquencies on home loans to borrowers with poor credit histories led to a decline in the prices of bonds tied to the loans.
Between July and December, almost 17,000 jobs were lost, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Lehman's home-loan unit, BNC Mortgage LLC, employed 1,600 people before the firm closed it down in August. Mortgage lender First Franklin Financial had 2,300 employees when it was acquired by Merrill Lynch & Co. in January 2007. Merrill shuttered the business this month. All told, at least 100 mortgage companies have suspended operations, closed or been sold since the start of 2007.
This year, banks including Lehman, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have been winnowing out employees in fixed income trading, securitization, asset management and investment banking. Administrative and technology staff have also been let go. So far, Citigroup has eliminated 1.7 percent of its work force, while Lehman has chopped 18 percent. Morgan Stanley has cut 6.2 percent, and Merrill has eliminated 4.5 percent.
Wall Street banks hit by mortgage losses and write-downs have cut more than 34,000 jobs in the past nine months, the most since the Internet stock boom fizzled in 2001.
Get the full article here.
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