Global financial managers shedding staff in India

Slowing growth in home markets, rising cost pressures and a worsening macro-economic environment have prompted global financial services firms such as Nomura, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to dismiss scores of employees in their India units.

Industry sources said around 200 people in India had lost their jobs in these three companies in the past couple of months.

Nomura, the Japanese financial services agency, has asked around 100 employees across its businesses here to leave the organisation, two people familiar with the development said. Nomura employs nearly 3,300 people in India. Most of the layoffs have happened in the firm's wealth management operations.

"The real estate team has reduced significantly. Similar pruning has been done in the investment banking and capital markets team. Most of the employees have been asked to leave and only a few have been accommodated in other verticals," said a former employee, requesting anonymity.

Sources said the restructuring was part of Nomura's global strategy to cut costs. Global rating agency Moody's had earlier said it might downgrade the Japanese firm's credit rating because of losses in international capital market activities.

Last month, Nomura's investment banking head, Nipun Goel, the head of its capital markets division, Indraneil Borkakoty, and executive director Shubham Majumdar left. Another source said there could be another round of layoff early next year, if Moody's decided to downgrade the rating.

"Nomura denies the accuracy of this 100 figure, pointing out that the number is significantly less and amounts to only around two per cent of its employees in India," the company's spokesperson, Nandini Goswami, said in an e-mailed response. "We are not providing details of individuals. However, at the time of its second quarter results, Nomura announced its intention to reduce its cost run rate by $1.2 billion, and we are in the process of executing that plan as quickly as possible. Nomura possesses deep bench strength and remains fully committed to the market."

Zurich-based Credit Suisse had asked 15 employees in its wealth management team in India to leave the organisation last week, sources said. The move comes after the company laid off 12 employees from the same team in August. Puneet Matta, head of the bank's private wealth management business in India, had also resigned.

The bank's wealth management team in India has now been nearly halved and the move is seen as part of the bank's decision to cut around 2,000 jobs globally by the end of 2012, because of a dip in earnings.

It is believed Morgan Stanley has asked 50-55 employees in its investment banking back-office team in India to leave. "The whole back-end team was asked to leave and we were told this was part of global restructuring exercise," said a former employee. However, the front-end team of the investment banking division didn't see any layoffs, sources added.

Both Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley declined to comment for this story.

Earlier this year, British lender Barclays closed its small and medium enterprise operations in India, that saw 25-30 employees leaving the bank. It is currently restructuring retail banking operations in India, which may lead to a fifth of its 1,200 staff in banking and finance operations losing their job.