US banking giants shed over 17,000 employees in turbulent year
Reuters
Published Jan 12, 2024 01:40PM ET
By Niket Nishant and Manya Saini
(Reuters) - Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup reduced their workforces by a combined 17,700 last year, the banking giants reported in their fourth-quarter earnings on Friday.
As dealmaking dried up and demand from borrowers softened last year, banks laid off employees or stopped replacing those who left.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), the nation's largest lender, bucked the trend by bolstering its ranks for a third straight year.
Challenging times for the industry could persist this year as weakness in commercial real estate and tougher proposed capital rules could prompt banks to pull back on lending.
Wall Street businesses suffered last year as economic uncertainty weighed on dealmaking.
While the S&P 500 banks index rose 7% in 2023, it underperformed indexes tracking industrial or consumer discretionary companies.
CITI OVERHAULS, GOLDMAN STEADIES SHIP
Citigroup's headcount fell by 1,000 to 239,000 employees in 2023, and the lender outlined plans to cut 20,000 jobs over the next two years including layoffs from a sweeping reorganization and other business changes.
At Bank of America and Wells Fargo the workforce contracted by about 2% and 5%, respectively, last year.
JPMorgan added more than 16,200 employees. The bank bought failed lender First Republic Bank (OTC:FRCB) in a rescue deal in May. It has added jobs every year since 2021.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are set to disclose their latest headcount next week. As of September end, they had cut over 4,300 jobs versus last year.
Earlier in 2023, Goldman Sachs undertook its biggest round of layoffs since the global financial crisis of 2008. In October, the bank's CFO Denis Coleman said they were in a position to do "selective investments" in headcount.
Bank Q4 '23 Q3 '23 Q2 '23 Q1 '23 Q4 '22
JPMorgan 309,926 308,669 300,066 296,877 293,723
Bank of 212,985 212,752 215,546 217,059 216,823
America
Wells Fargo 225,869 227,363 233,834 235,591 238,698
Citigroup 239,000 238,000 240,000 240,000 240,000
Goldman Sachs - 45,900 44,600 45,400 48,500
Morgan Stanley - 80,710 82,006 82,266 82,427
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.