Banks Cut 77K Jobs Across The Globe This Year: Bloomberg

Banks across the globe announced plans to cut 77,780 jobs this year, the highest job cuts since 2015, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

What Happened

The number of cuts has nearly doubled since last year, but it is significantly lower than the 91,448 job cuts seen in 2015, Bloomberg data shows.

The spike mainly comes from Europe, which accounts for 82% of all employment reduction.

Most European national banks continue to have negative interest rates, with Sweden just exiting the negative rates earlier this month, reducing the banks’ profits from the money they lend.

Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB) has alone announced plans to cut 18,000 jobs by 2022.

Milan-based Unicredit S.p.A (OTC: UNCRY) made 8,000 cuts this year, followed by Spanish bank Banco Santander S.A.’s (NYSE: SAN) 5,400, and Commerzbank AG (OTC: CRZBY) with 4,300 cuts.

The banks in the rest of the world saw greater stability through the year, with North America accounting for just 7,669 job cuts in 2018, according to the data compiled by Bloomberg based on documents filed by companies and labor unions.

A banking giant Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) alone accounted for 1,500 of these cuts, announced earlier this month.

Asia-Pacific had an even lesser number –– 513, about 0.65% of the total.

What’s Next

According to Bloomberg, companies could continue to announce job cuts in the financial year 2020, with reports of Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (NYSE: BBVA) and Swiss bank Julius Baer Group (OTC: JBARF) planning similar staff reductions already floating around.