"The bank I work for is killing talented people with a thousand cuts"

7 May 2025

3 minute read

I work for a tier one global bank. Like many other banks, the bank I work for has big cost-cutting plans. Tens of thousands of jobs are due to go by 2026. It is tortuous. In my entire career, I have never seen a restructuring like this before. The bank keeps killing employees with death by a thousand cuts, many of which make little sense.

No one here knows who will be next to go. Last week, for example, it was announced internally that the credit/debt execution division will be polarised into two hubs. That team was pretty much formed in 2023 as a carve out of vice presidents (VP) and directors from the existing debt origination, corporate banking, product and risk teams. The intention at the time was to centralise deal execution and create capacity for the more expensive VP cohorts in the front office. In January, though, a lot of junior VPs and directors in our offshore hubs were promoted to senior VP and director. It now seems that they're going to be given more work. Since the promotions, many of then report to MDs, while we in London are stuck reporting to the directors.

None of this makes sense. The people in our offshore hubs know nothing about interacting with clients or managing directors. They've never executed a deal across its lifecycle. Most of them have no idea what the iBOXX HY index is trading at, or even what it means!

People in the offshore hubs are simply data and regulatory checkers. The bank has been bombarding them with training courses, but they don't have the educational foundation to build on.

To make matters worse, people in London and New York - whose own jobs are clearly at risk - are being asked to mentor our people in offshore centres by working with them on low intensity names so that they can take our roles! Seasoned product bankers and dealmakers are effectively being asked to render themselves replaceable.

It's puzzling and depressing. How will deal execution improve when it's done by an offshore hub? Most people in these hubs have never worked a weekend, never done a full deal cycle and have a skillset that's 20% relevant at best. They're used to working in shifts that are time-tracked. Suddenly they're more important than us because they report to MDs.

It's all very disheartening. High quality people in London and New York can see very clearly that cuts are coming, just not immediately. No one expected their banking career would end like this. Last year, other teams were given a proper voluntary redundancy process. We haven't had that luxury: it's just being made clear to us that our jobs will disappear and that we should probably be looking for something else.

Rosie Roscorla is a pseudonym

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AUTHORRosie Roscorla

Insider Comment

Su
Sultan
12 May 2025
sounds like HSBC !!
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de
dejavu
11 May 2025
High-cost locations often suffer from inefficiency, cronyism, and poor management. While there are undoubtedly some highly talented individuals, they often surround themselves with incompetent colleagues, driving costs even higher. The absence of a proper interview process and pervasive cronyism are seriously weakening the system, forcing banks to seek lower-cost alternatives. Additionally, a significant number of employees do not contribute to revenue but, under the guise of soft skills and management, consume profits. Unless banks adopt lean and cost-effective practices, the need for offshore centers will continue to grow.
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TS
TS100
9 May 2025
The way I see or hear is that some of these offshore locations have bloated up with excess layers of middle management. The merger is designed to ensure they become operators rather than manage KPIs. I know the bank you are talking about! The bulk of deal flow remains with poeple in Europe close to deal teams. Light weight / administrative work will continue offshore with gradual delayering of middle layer bloat of VPs/Ds and size reduction in those centres and eventually limiting them to ultra junior staff only.
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an
anon1234567
7 May 2025
If you are right then this is the bank's problem, not yours.
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An
Anon123654
7 May 2025
It's called capitalism - exactly what investment banks have been preaching to their clients for decades. People in high-cost locations like London and New York - particularly IT, back and middle office - have been seeing this for years. Now it's happening to front office as well. If you're not in a regulated role, then your role in future will be done in the cheapest location in the world. Hire 5 people in India, get the person in London to train them up, 3 will be competent (the other 2 can be let go) and then the person in London can be let go. If one of the 3 competent people in India resigns and finds a better job, then hire another person in India and the 2 remaining in the Mumbai office can train up the new hire. Maybe a few early glitches, but these can be resolved and costs can be cut. (Almost) Everyone in London is just an FTE line on a spreadsheet that can eventually be cut. Depressing, but true...
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