Book Value

UBS is alone among the 10 largest global banks in trading above book value, a level it reached after announcing job cuts. Firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc traded at more than twice their book value in 2007.

Citigroup said it expects the moves to save it $2 billion in expenses over the next two years. Mike Mayo, an analyst at CLSA Ltd., said the job reductions were a “tremor” and an “earthquake” was needed by April. Nomura Holdings Inc.’s Glenn Schorr said some people may call the number “light.”

Citigroup “is really catching up with a lot of the other firms because most firms have done heavy restructuring in the last year an a half,” said Jeanne Branthover, head of the financial-services practice at Boyden Global Executive Search Ltd., a New York-based recruiting firm. “This is very much Citi addressing what they probably should have addressed a while ago but they had the wrong leadership.”

Citigroup’s Chief

CEO Michael Corbat, 52, took the top job at Citigroup less than two months ago with the departure of Vikram Pandit. The reductions announced by Corbat yesterday add to the 5,000 Pandit ordered earlier this year.

Other banks may wait until the new year to cut additional jobs. Morgan Stanley trimmed 4,000 employees, or 6.7 percent of staff, in the first nine months of the year, almost matching CEO James Gorman’s target of a 7 percent reduction. The firm doesn’t plan on making any additional cuts in 2012, a person briefed on the matter said.

“The cyclical pressures are real and we have responded by reducing cost and proactively managing our capital, and if the environment deteriorates further, we’ll take additional action,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein, 58, said at an investor conference on Nov. 13.

The six largest U.S. banks have reduced headcount by more than 24,000 over the 12 months ended in September. Deutsche Bank AG, UBS and Credit Suisse AG have cut an additional 6,000 in that time. Still, that amounts to just a 2.2 percent reduction in the group’s total number of employees.

U.K. Firms