Not Even Asia is Safe from Wall Street's Wrath
By odihost on January 25th, 2012Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, one of Spain’s largest corporations dealing with retail banking, private banking and other services around the world, recently reduced its global markets staff in Asia, the Wall Street Journal reports.
As of December 2011, the company had eliminated 29 employees in three offices: Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. According to the Wall Street Journal, this is Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s first cutback since it decided to expand in Asia five years ago. In 2007, the company purchased a stake in China Citic Bank Corp.
Overall, BBVA has reduced its workforce by 150 people, the Wall Street Journal said. This amounts to a 4% reduction in the company’s global personnel.
While the job loss might sound a bit small compared to the massive layoffs of other banks, the number is quite significant considering the growth that BBVA had been experiencing. The company now owns 15% of China Citic Bank, the seventh-largest bank (by assets) in China. Prior to this troubling development, BBVA had about 85 staff in Asia working for its global markets team, “including traders and structuring and related sales staff spanning the equities, fixed income and credit asset classes,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
When considering how few jobs BBVA had in Asia to begin with (85 employees), the job loss (29 employees) sounds exorbitant.
Where will these employees go next? That’s a question a lot of people in the financial community are asking, not just those in Asia. But there are no easy answers.
There is, however, a growing community of financial professionals that are here to lend a helping hand. They’ve been united by StreetID, a financial career matchmaking site. With StreetID, job seekers can sign up for a free account and make a direct connection with relevant candidates and employers.
About StreetID
StreetID is the first ever online career matchmaking and networking site, designed specifically for professionals and companies within the financial services industry. StreetID enables job seekers to create an online profile for free. This biographical data is then strategically sorted, thus enabling hiring managers to target only the best, most suitable candidates with the click of a mouse.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/not-even-asia-is-safe-from-wall-streets-wrath-5595972.html
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