Financial services firms have been cutting jobs for the past year, with no signs of letting up.
Banks, asset managers and consultancies have all cut swathes of jobs in recent months.
City jobs dried up in the last quarter of 2023, with the number of available financial services roles falling 42% compared with the fourth quarter of 2022, according to Morgan McKinley’s London Employment Monitor.
During the post-pandemic deal boom many major finance firms went on hiring sprees, which left them overstaffed, and a slower job market has meant that fewer of those staff moved on.
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Morgan Stanley and PwC both pointed to lower staff attrition rates as part of their motivation for cutting jobs.
Banks have been characteristically brutal in their job cuts, and major disruption such as the merger of UBS with Credit Suisse and Citigroup’s radical overhaul are set to lead to thousands of roles going.
In recent months banks have been followed by asset managers, which are shedding jobs in a tough climate for active fund houses too.
Consultancy and accountancy firms have also cut thousands of jobs as demand for deal advice dries up in a slower market.
These are the banks, consultancy firms and asset managers cutting jobs:
Banks
UBS expects half of planned $13bn cost-cuts to come from employees
UBS rolls out fresh layoffs as Credit Suisse integration continues
Citigroup to cut 20,000 roles in Jane Fraser’s radical overhaul
Citigroup offers generous redundancy package to laid-off UK bankers
Barclays cut 5,000 jobs last year in cost-reduction push
Deutsche Bank to cut 3,500 more jobs in cost-cutting push
Nomura cuts 60 investment bank jobs in difficult dealmaking conditions
Societe Generale to axe 900 jobs in France
Rothschild-owned Redburn Atlantic cuts 20 staff amid UK equity drought
Asset managers
BlackRock to cull 600 jobs as it eyes ‘opportunities for growth’
Abrdn outflows top £12bn as group prepares to cut 500 jobs
Baillie Gifford to cut jobs after fixed income overhaul
Consultancy
EY launches fresh round of UK job cuts
EY is laying off US partners amid tough economic conditions
Deloitte UK to axe 100 jobs amid slow deals market
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email James Booth
Westcon-Comstor, the global technology provider and distributor, has announced it has acquired the specialist AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud consultancy Rebura. The acquisition will further solidify Westcon-Comstor’s position in cloud capabilities and enhance their service offering to their channel partners.
Rebura, which is based in London and was founded in 2017, specialises in aiding AWS cloud migrations and modernisations. In addition, it offers SaaS and DevOps capabilities across the UK, Nordics, and central Europe. Last year, Rebura and AWS entered into a strategic collaboration agreement, underscoring the consultancy’s importance to AWS. Now, Rebura holds seven competencies with AWS, including migration, Microsoft Workloads, and DevOps.
As AWS advanced service partner and solution provider, Rebura supports businesses across all scales, facilitating the building and optimisation of their apps and workloads on AWS. Its services bolster productivity, scalability, cost efficiency, and security.
The acquisition will allow Westcon-Comstor’s partners to deliver an exhaustive suite of AWS solutions, that includes cloud consultancy, migration services, FinOps, AWS Marketplace excellence, and security-aligned professional services. The partnership of Rebura, a certified AWS migration services competency partner, and Westcon-Comstor’s expertise in cybersecurity, will equip channel partners with a potent cloud offering.
In the aftermath of the acquisition, Westcon-Comstor, who recently became the first distributor to achieve AWS Security Competency status in Asia Pacific, will offer Rebura consulting services through its existing businesses: Westcon and Comstor. However, Rebura will continue operating as a standalone organisation, forming the groundwork for Westcon-Comstor’s AWS line of business.
In light of sustained organic growth encompassing double-digit revenue increases for the past two fiscal years, Westcon-Comstor views the acquisition as a cornerstone in its growth strategy to centre on targetted, strategic acquisitions.
David Grant, CEO at Westcon-Comstor, commented on the significant benifits this acquisition brings. “Migrating workloads to the cloud and maintaining security resilience are two of the biggest challenges faced by end-user businesses,” stated Grant, adding, “this represents a significant opportunity for the channel, but many of our partners do not have the AWS migration and security skills needed to support their customers on this journey. Thanks to this exciting acquisition, our partners will now be able to access these capabilities through Rebura as part of a seamless and unique proposition.”
Aaron Rees, Founder and CEO at Rebura, expressed his excitement, stating “Over the past seven years we have built Rebura into one of the fastest-growing AWS consulting and service partners, and today marks an exciting new chapter in our history. Westcon-Comstor’s global reach and incredibly strong channel connections will give us a much bigger platform from which to grow as we bring our deep expertise across AWS products and services to a wider audience.”
EY is set to pay some of its UK consultants to take time away from the business, the latest sign of pressure on a strained market for advisory services.
The Big Four firm has launched a “time out summer programme” for financial services consulting staff, according to an internal memo seen by Financial News.
Employees who are not deployed on an assignment or without an assignment from March to August 2024 can leave their role for up to 12 weeks.
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The time out will be unpaid, but staff will receive a bonus of 25% of their notional salary on their return.
The scheme is the latest in a line of money-saving initiatives by leading consultancy firms, which have faced the challenge of highly paid staff sitting idle as key clients like banks and private equity houses suffer from a deal slump and face their own cost pressures.
Practices such as restructuring have held up, but other workstreams have flatlined, raising tough decisions over whether headcount should be trimmed in a bid to keep partner profits strong.
Consulting is bearing the brunt of Deloitte’s 800 planned job cuts. One hundred UK deal advisers are being slashed by KPMG, while PwC is getting rid of 600 roles. Many global consultancies are also pushing back graduate start dates to save immediate costs, and US sector leaders including McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group are set to rack up thousands of redundancies.
EY’s memo says the time out programme creates opportunities “to achieve balance in your work and personal lives” and “constructively use your time either travelling, spending time with family or just time out for yourself.”
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To be allowed time off, staff must be graded at least “performing as expected”. They will receive their usual benefits for the time away, which must be a minimum of four weeks.
EY can reject requests to join the scheme at its discretion, and requires staff to submit plans to use around 40% of their holiday by the end of June and 70% by the end of August, because the time out supplements existing annual leave.
The short-term pause suggests EY is betting on a deals rebound later in 2024. Bankers are holding out high hopes that UK success stories including Starling, Monzo and Oaknorth could pick London to float and rekindle sluggish capital markets as the government and private sector overhaul listings rules and prepare to launch a new intermittent trading venue to breath life back into the City.
“EY’s UK financial services consulting business is operating an ‘Employee TimeOut’ initiative, offering its people four to twelve weeks of unpaid leave over the summer months,” an EY spokesperson confirmed.
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Justin Cash