Banks Kick Off Layoff Season

Several banks are using December as an opportunity to announce layoffs.
By Maria Woehr ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Banks are using December as an opportunity to announce layoffs and prepare balance sheets for 2011.

"Banks had poor third quarters and they are shuffling people around to make the most productive ones happy in 2011," said Maurice B. Toueg, a partner at Capstone Partnership. "We are seeing layoffs of senior levels in the banks that are not productive."

Barclays Capital

(BCS) - Get Report

has confirmed that they are about to layoff hundreds of people in the UK in the next 90 days due to a decline in investment-banking revenue.

"We can confirm that we have begun a consultation process in the UK to reduce headcount within Barclays Capital. We continue to hire selectively across those parts of the business that are growing," said Simon Eaton, a Barclays' spokesperson.

Barclays Capital is not the only bank conducting layoffs at the moment.

State Street

(STT) - Get Report

, also

announced that the bank is slashing 1,400 jobs by the end of the year.

National Bank Financial

, the investment-banking arm of

National Bank of Canada

, also announced that it had plans layoff 40 employees, according to published reports.

Since this summer several banks have been

trimming down.

Among those that have announced layoffs are

ING

(ING) - Get Report

,

Credit Suisse

(CS) - Get Report

,

Deutche Bank

(DB) - Get Report

and

Royal Bank of Scotland

(RBS) - Get Report

and

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

.

Across the broader economy employers announcing job cuts. Layoff annoucements shot up up 28 percent, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

--Written by Maria Woehr in New York.

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