Credit Suisse rescue set to spark jobs bloodbath of City bankers

Tens of thousands of bankers are in line to lose their jobs following the £2.6billion rescue of Credit Suisse by UBS.

Fears are that as many as 40,000 jobs could go, as UBS looks to cull overlapping roles and reduce Credit Suisse’s investment bank.

Collectively the new group employs more than 120,000 people – Credit Suisse has 50,000 staff, while UBS employs 74,000 workers. 

Borrowed time: Bankers at Credit Suisse in Canary Wharf are fearing the worst after its rescue by UBS

Up to a third of these jobs could be gone, with Credit Suisse’s 17,000 investment bankers expected to feel the brunt of the losses.

The fallen Swiss banking giant employs 5,000 at Canary Wharf, and UBS has 6,000 at Broadgate in the City.

UBS snapped up Credit Suisse on Sunday night in a £2.6billion rescue deal aimed at staving off a new financial crisis.

City veteran David Buik, of trading exchange Aquis Exchange, said: ‘There will be “cherry picking” with Credit Suisse likely to lose more jobs.

‘I would expect 2,000 jobs [in London] in total to go.’ Since the merger at the weekend, bankers have been arriving at Credit Suisse in Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, fearing the worst about looming job losses. 

To add insult to injury, the Swiss government yesterday banned the lender from paying deferred bonuses awarded before 2022.

One banker who was furious at the merger said he was ‘spending 60 per cent of my time working and 40 per cent doing my CV and reaching out to recruiters’. 

Another added: ‘I’ve cried twice in my career. One during my first week in investment banking when I thought “what the hell have I let myself into?”, and once today.’ 

And the global picture looks even bleaker, with a third of the combined 120,000 staff at Credit Suisse and UBS set to be cut as UBS looks to significantly reduce the combined group’s investment banking arm to avoid duplicate roles.

UBS will also close branches and reduce staff in administrative positions, sources said. Credit Suisse employs 50,000 people around the world, while UBS has 74,000 staff.

Credit Suisse chairman Axel Lehmann and chief executive Ulrich Koerner said they were working to ‘identify which roles might be impacted’. 

The bank held a ‘town hall’ meeting at 9am on Monday, featuring Koerner. According to staff, they were encouraged to continue working during the period of upheaval.

A spokesman for the Swiss Bank Employees’ Association yesterday said: ‘The takeover threatens job cuts on a scale that the labour market in the banking sector cannot absorb.’

It called for redundancies to be put on hold until the end of the year. And as Credit Suisse staff fear being made redundant, recruitment firms and rival banks are receiving an ‘unprecedented’ number of calls from those looking for jobs. 

A London-based headhunter said he took calls all weekend, particularly from those in Credit Suisse’s equity division which has a big overlap with UBS. 

A firm in Singapore handled questions from some 30 Credit Suisse private bankers about available jobs on Monday, and a recruiter in Hong Kong has been talking to more than 20 senior investment bankers since last week.

The president of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset said the merger had avoided ‘unthinkable consequences for Switzerland and the world’ had Credit Suisse been allowed to fail,

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk