JPM and BNY Cutting Staff

JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York Mellon joined the layoff parade late last week. JPMorgan reportedly will eliminate 3,000 jobs or 10 percent of its global investment banking staff, while BNY Mellon said it plans 1,800 job cuts or 4 percent of its worldwide workforce of 43,000. Neither institution provided details about where the cuts will fall.

Citing unnamed sources, a number of news organs also say JPMorgan plans to freeze base salaries next year for most employees. It's not unusual for banks to hold salaries steady for similar experience levels from one year to the next during down cycles. The layoffs were described as broad-based, with no details about which functions within the investment bank might be cut back the most.

JPMorgan has not officially confirmed the latest staffing cut reports. Early in November it reportedly told employees it was closing a proprietary trading desk and transferring some traders to other functions.

Meanwhile, BNY Mellon Chief Executive Robert Kelly said expense reductions are necessary, given the current weakness in the global economy. "We will take advantage of natural turnover to lessen the impact on existing staff," Kelly said in a statement.

The past several weeks have seen a drumbeat of mass layoff announcements from sell-side and buy-side institutions including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Fidelity Investments, among others.