Dresdner Kleinwort to Cull 'Hundreds of Jobs'

Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment banking subsidiary of German insurer Allianz, is set to make several hundred people in the U.S. and Europe redundant as part of a program of mass redundancies.

Sources close to the bank said it had targeted making as many as 25 percent of front office staff as redundant, though it remains unclear whether that target has been met. One said the move could affect "hundreds of jobs."

Bankers at Dresdner said any suggestion that the redundancies were part of a performance review exercise were "ridiculous."

The redundancy program was launched yesterday and continued today.

One source said the bank employs between 800 and 1,000 people in its front office globally.

About 50 people have lost their jobs in the U.S. business based in New York.

The redundancies are understood to include Ian Platt, co-head of primary rates; Henry Nevstad, head of primary trading and syndicate; Paul Thomas, head of credit sales; and Nick Morgan, head of financial institutions debt capital markets.

The bank declined to comment.