Yahoo Finance Citi (C) Dissolves FX Strategy & Corporate Bond Trading Team
Citigroup Inc. C has taken down its CitiFX global FX strategy and Latin America corporate bond trading teams, per Reuters and Bloomberg.
According to people familiar with the matter, the closure affects all jobs within the CitiFX global FX strategy team that provides commentary and analysis on foreign-exchange markets.
With other parts of the bank, such as the research division, offering similar services, Citigroup has likely decided to cut jobs and dissolve this team, according to a person with knowledge of the plans.
Citigroup’s dismantling of its Latin America corporate bond trading team comes at the heels of liquidity tightening and issuance drying up.
This March, the bank initiated a round of job cuts, slashing hundreds of jobs across the firm, which accounted for less than 1% of its total workforce, Bloomberg reported earlier. Per people familiar with the matter, the company’s investment banking (IB) division, its operations and technology organization, and the U.S. mortgage-underwriting division were among those affected.
In its IB division, Citigroup was struggling because of the industry-wide slowdown in dealmaking. In its mortgage division, the company was grappling with reduced mortgage demand because of rising prices and a rapid increase in mortgage rates.
Over the past six months, shares of C have gained 7.3% against the industry’s fall of 4.4%.
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Currently, C carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
C is not the only one trimming its workforce. Many other Wall Street firms, including Bank of America BAC and Morgan Stanley MS, have been taking similar steps in their IB and wealth management divisions.
Last week, it was reported that Bank of America intended to eliminate around 40 positions in its Asia region’s IB unit. Of the affected employees, the majority are based out of Hong Kong, with a particular emphasis on China, and hold junior positions, per people familiar with the matter. BAC’s latest redeployment strategy aims to serve as a temporary measure in response to the dealmaking scarcity and slowdown in China’s economy.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Morgan Stanley would initiate another round of job cuts and decided to lay off 3,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2023, per a source familiar with the matter. Of this, MS is considering cutting around 7% of jobs in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan). Last year, MS slashed roughly 50 IB jobs in the Asia-Pacific region, with a large number being China-focused positions.
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