As Credit Suisse denies job cuts, another bank dumps London staff

December 12 is Credit Suisse's 2018 investor day, but Bloomberg thinks the Swiss bank has decided it needs to do something about its cost base before next year. Following a CHF96m loss in the global markets division in the third quarter, Bloomberg says the Swiss bank is contemplating cutting "100s of jobs" to lower costs before 2018 is out.

Credit Suisse denies this. In a statement, the bank said the notion that it is "weighing hundreds of active job cuts is unfounded," and that it will, "continue to invest in talent" in order to grow revenues in its wealth management and investment banking businesses. Nonetheless, earlier this month, the bank announced an additional CHF100m in restructuring costs before year end. Who's most at risk? Not Credit Suisse's equity derivatives professionals, who have had a great year. By comparison, securitized products, leveraged finance, FX and structured credit had a difficult third quarter.

If Credit Suisse is cutting fewer than 100 jobs, it will not be the only one. As we were first to report last week, Berenberg jettisoned its London hiring plans and is resetting headcount to the level of 2017. Market insiders say Numis Securities has also been making some cuts in London.

Numis is understood to have made "notable" headcount reductions last week, with departures across research, sales and corporate finance. They include Oliver Cardigan, an MD in corporate finance who joined from Rothschild in 2006. Numis and Cardigan didn't respond to a request to comment on the exits, but colleagues confirmed their occurrence and said around six people have gone.

Like Berenberg, Numis had been adding London jobs. Numis accumulated 13 additional registered staff between November 2017 and November 2018 according to the Financial Conduct Authority - an increase of nearly 9%.

“Investment in talented individuals across the business has been a key priority during the year as we seek to strengthen and diversify the business for the future,” said the bank's co-chief executive officers in September, after revealing the new recruits would dent full year profits. Despite concerns about the revenue effects of MiFID II legislation, Numis hired three top ranked analysts from BNP Paribas in August, and the head of institutional equities sales from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in May.

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