(30 November 2004 – Europe) JP Morgan Chase is reportedly about to cut investment banking jobs in its European operations as part of an end of year review of its business.Sources close to the bank said the bank could shed about five percent of its 6000 investment bank employees across Europe. The bank has not confirmed the reports.
Some of the cuts may come about due to the merger of JP Morgan’s M&A advisory business with UK’s Cazenove. However, at the time of the merger in early November, both firms said there were no plans to cut staff.
M&A activity and equity markets in Europe have been flat after a three year boom.
JPMorgan Chase suffered a three percent drop in third quarter revenue to US$2.7 billion. Fixed income revenues of US$1.1 billion dropped 23 percent from the third quarter of 2003 due to weak trading results.