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Foreign banks spare the ax in China, Asia

By Jin Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-13 09:44

While many foreign banks stung by the US subprime mortgage crisis are trimming their headcounts, they have largely held back the ax in high-growth markets in China and many other parts of Asia.

UBS, one of Europe's biggest banking groups, said that the process of reviewing and reallocating resources "will result in a minimal number of redundancies in the region (including China)". The staff restructuring "will have no impact on UBS' continued growth in the region", it said.

The group announced 5,500 job cuts worldwide last week, after reporting a $10.9 billion net loss in the first quarter.

Morgan Stanley, the second-largest US investment bank, told China Daily it has not yet laid off anyone in China, despite its large worldwide workforce reduction.

The bank reportedly said it plans to reduce its headcount by as much as 5 percent globally over the next few months, after it posted a $3.6 billion fourth-quarter loss.

A JPMorgan Securities Asia-Pacific spokeswoman said the company is hiring more people in China rather than cutting jobs in the country. However, the investment bank's parent, JPMorgan Chase, reported it had trimmed 100 positions - 10 percent of its headcount - worldwide.

China International Capital Corp Ltd's Chief Economist Ha Jiming told China Daily the current situation for foreign investment banks in China is sound because the country's capital market is expanding.

"China's capital market has great potential in several sectors, including investment banking services, wealth management services and innovative product creation, because China still largely needs to develop the stock market and the private equity market," Ha said.

Fudan University professor Sun Lijian said: "The shrinking derivatives market in the US led to the decline in job demand, but the market just took off in China.

"And dwindling overseas investment opportunities for foreign banks and security firms may cause them to look more closely at China."

Citibank China said they "will continue to invest, expand, network, and hire and train people here, because China remains one of Citi's top-priority markets anywhere in the world". However, the bank declined to disclose its lay-off status.

New York-based Citigroup Inc, which in the wake of the subprime crisis posted about $41 billion in writedowns and losses, cut about 15,200 jobs globally.

But Citibank China performed well over the past year, reporting a 99 percent increase in operating income, which reached 2.2 billion yuan.

Zhang Ming, of Chinese Academy of Social Science's International Finance Research Center, said foreign banks and security firms in China might undergo further staff reductions, but they wouldn't be large.