Deutsche Bank laying off 150 people in fixed income today

The redundancies we said would happen have come to pass. As we predicted last week, Deutsche is laying people off in its fixed income division. 

Deutsche insiders say that around 150 people have been put at risk, mostly in the Institutional Clients Group (ICG). This is the area responsible for delivering the bank's products to clients - most of the laid off individuals are said to be in sales.

The bad news was expected to be delivered yesterday, but was delayed by 24 hours. Deutsche made 200 layoffs in its equities division earlier this month, but took longer to prepare the pink slips in fixed income - possibly because it wanted to avoid a conflict with the school holidays in the UK, when many of its London staff were away.

It's not clear who's gone yet, but we'll add names when we have them. Earlier this week, Suzanne Cain, Deutsche's European head of debt sales and one of the bank's most senior female employees, left for Blackrock. With salespeople reportedly at the forefront of today's layoffs, Cain's move looks prescient.

As we were (also) the first to report a few weeks ago, most people at Deutsche Bank are receiving all but zero bonuses this year, and the minority of Deutsche Bankers receiving the bank's retention payouts are finding horrible strings attached.  In the circumstances, maybe losing your job and being free to take time out and 'find yourself'/find a new one is no big deal. Who knows? With fixed income revenues booming, other banks may even start hiring again soon.

Deutsche declined to comment on the layoffs. The bank announced 9,000 redundancies across the group globally in 2015; this is a manifestation of those ongoing cuts.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: Deutsche Bank | London Wall by Justin Pickard is licensed under CC BY 2.0.