(23 May 2016 – Europe) French based BNP Paribas plans to cut its investment banking staff in Britain by around 5 percent in 2016 sources have told Reuters.
The cuts come as part of a wider plan to reduce costs in a division hit by tighter regulation and a slump in revenue.
BNP plans to axe 233 British jobs but will also be hiring 60 employees there — bringing the net headcount down to 3,105 in 2016 from 3,278 in 2015, the source said.
Elsewhere in Europe, the bank is set to hire a similar net number. Overall, 179 staff will be hired in Poland, increasing its total headcount by about half to 507 employees. Italy would see a net decrease in headcount (of 27), while Spain, Portugal and Ireland would see some hiring, the source said.
BNP has said it is targeting more than one billion euros of cost savings at its investment bank over the next three years, but outside of France, it has yet to put any numbers on resulting job losses around Europe.
Earlier this year, the bank announced a voluntary redundancy plan that calls for up to 675 job cuts at its corporate and institutional bank (CIB) in France, which employs 6,000 staff.