Citi India to fire 100 in India

Citi on Tuesday said it will cut around 100 jobs across its businesses in India.

The move comes after the financial services firm announced that it will lay-off 4,500 employees or 2 per cent of its workforce globally. “Citigroup continuously reviews its internal processes and organisational structure to right-size the organisation for efficient growth. As a result of this exercise, Citi India has identified approximately 100 positions that will be impacted within the bank,” a spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

According to Citi officials, reducing the workforce will not slow growth of its businesses in India. The firm has around 7,000 employees here. The firm hired over 1,577 in India across businesses last calendar year. “International and emerging markets comprise a very significant component of Citi’s growth strategy and India is among the highest priority markets for Citi within this strategy,” the spokesperson said.

In the past few months, a number of global financial services firms have dismissed scores of employees in their India units as slowing growth in home markets and worsening macro-economic environment push these firms to reduce costs.

For instance, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation had decided to cut jobs in India from January 2012. The move is aimed at reducing costs and improving efficiencies and is part of the bank’s plan to lay-off 30,000 employees globally.

Another British lender Barclays Bank had closed its small and medium enterprise business in India and also decided to exit retail lending operations here. The restructuring is expected to see about a fifth of its staff in banking and finance operations losing their jobs. The headcount in India is estimated at 1,200.

Other financial services firms such as Nomura, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley have also laid off employees in wealth management and investment banking businesses in recent months.