Credit Suisse Cuts 1,500 Positions in London, Scaling Down for Brexit

Credit Suisse Group AG is cutting as many as 1,500 positions in London after the unit’s revenue slumped and warned that more staff could be moved to other locations in Europe as a result of Brexit.

The additional job cuts come after Credit Suisse reported a $2.43 billion net loss for 2016, although it struck an optimistic tone for this year.

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Before the recent cutbacks, Switzerland’s second-biggest bank employed 9,000 staff across the UK, and the latest round of reductions will take its London staff down to under 5,000. The lender, along with other banks, have called for clarity about how transactions worth billions of euros will be dealt with after the UK leaves the EU.

Credit Suisse is shaking up its London business, that was singled out as unprofitable and suffering from high bonuses and the cost of doing business in the British capital. One Credit Suisse executive told Reuters that Brexit reinforced the bank’s determination to act.

The Zurich-based bank is also expecting to move an additional 1,000 staff in London after Brexit. But the number could be higher as its chief executive Sergio Ermotti said that the event could affect about a third of its 5,400 employees in London.

Several global investment banks cut the size of their operations in the UK last year and said that the scale of further cuts will depend on whether transactions denominated in euros can continue to take place through clearing houses in London.