Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. said Thursday it is cutting as many as 90 jobs in London at its U.K. brokerage unit.
"Earnings at the U.K. unit have been hurt as they've been affected by the subprime crisis," said Hiroshi Kutose, a spokesman in Tokyo for Mitsubishi UFJ Securities. Between 80 and 90 jobs will be cut, he said, without naming individuals.
Head of rates trading Shabaz Rasool is among bankers who have gone, said two people with knowledge of the matter, declining to be identified before a public announcement.
Banks and securities firms have cut about 112,100 jobs over the past 13 months as writedowns linked to subprime mortgages climbed to more than $509 billion.
MUFG, Japan's largest bank by market value, is cutting jobs after some investments in fixed income trading didn't reach targets, the sources said.
"The crisis surrounding Western financial institutions impacts those involved with them," said Shaun Springer, CEO of Napier Scott Executive Search Ltd. in London. "We are coming into the fifth quarter of the crisis, and I expect it will go 10 rounds."
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. will be left with about 500 employees in London after the cuts, Hirose said. The brokerage is not planning additional layoffs at the unit, he said.
Four months ago, Tokyo-based MUFG named Clifford De Souza as the first non-Japanese chief executive officer of its European investment banking and brokerage business.
The reductions at MUFG also include traders, product control and administrative employees, the sources said.
Job losses in the Square Mile, London's main financial district, may total 40,000 this year, according to estimates by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.