Schroders and Deutsche to cut City jobs

Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and Deutsche Bank were yesterday thought to be the latest institutions to cut away another swath of staff in the continuing City jobs cull.

SSSB, owned by Citigroup, is thought to be getting rid of some of its top-performing analysts in the most recent round of redundancies. Rumours were circulating that about 10 top-rated analysts in London would go.

The bank, the largest in the world, is also considering cutting about 50 junior level jobs from its corporate finance department.

Citigroup would not comment on the redundancies, saying in a statement: "Given the market realities, we are continuing to make targeted reductions throughout the organisation."

Citigroup has reduced its headcount in research by about 45 in Europe in the past six months, bringing the department in the region down to 200.

Its latest redundancies come as Citigroup is embarking on a major restructuring of SSSB, after a hard-hitting attack on its lack of independence by the New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer.

As a result, Citigroup is renaming SSSB globally as Smith Barney and putting it under the control of Sallie Krawcheck.

Ms Krawcheck, known for her trenchant views that research should not be compromised by a close relationship with other parts of the investment bank, will run the business at arm's length from Citigroup.

Deutsche Bank is also in the process of making cuts in its corporate finance section. One banking source speculated Deutsche was cutting about 10 per cent of staff in that division.

A Deutsche spokesperson said it is implementing its strategic review announced last June of cutting 14,000 globally as part of a drive to rein in costs.