"Like all banks, BNP Paribas must adapt its business to the new regulatory environment, which impacts in particular the capital-markets and structured-finance activities," Julia Boyce, a Paris-based spokeswoman, said by telephone today.
BNP Paribas said Nov. 3 it expects about 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in losses from disposals and one-time costs as it speeds up asset cuts to comply with capital rules. The company has pledged to reduce its balance sheet by 10 percent, including cutting $82 billion in corporate- and investment-banking assets.
Union Officials
Union officials met with Alain Papiasse, head of the investment-banking unit, this morning in Paris, said Joel Debeausse, a union representative for the Syndicat National de la Banque et du credit at BNP Paribas. Neither Debeausse nor Boyce, the BNP spokeswoman, gave any more details on the breakdown of the job reductions.
Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender by deposits, cut part of its top-ranked Merrill Lynch & Co. equities division in Europe, said two people familiar with the situation. The cuts yesterday affected specialist sales and generalist sales, said the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn't public. They didn't provide a number of positions affected.
Separately, the lender reduced its sales and trading team in Dubai by 40 percent, to six people from 10, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs at the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender over the next few years to reduce costs by $5 billion annually by the end of 2013.