Many banking giants in the US and Europe have decided to temporarily pause job cuts in the wake of the deadly coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The banks that are suspending new job cuts include Wells Fargo, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, among others.
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Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo is halting redundancies, letting its staff stay as they grapple with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Bloomberg reported.
Wells Fargo spokeswoman Beth Richek said: “We have paused initiating new displacements.
“We will continue to evaluate during this fluid situation.”
Wells Fargo has approximately 260,000 employees, the largest workforce among US banks.
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By GlobalDataThe bank joins Citigroup and Morgan Stanley in the move to preserve jobs as the pandemic affects markets and businesses.
Citigroup and Morgan Stanley
New York-based lenders Citigroup and Morgan Stanley will also suspend planned job cuts, the reported added.
In a memo to its employees, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said that the bank won’t trim the workforce this year.
Gorman said: “I am sure some if not many of you are worried about your jobs.
“We want to commit to you that there will not be a reduction in force at Morgan Stanley in 2020.
“Aside from a performance issue or a breach of the code of conduct, your jobs are secure.”
In Europe: HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Lloyds Bank
It has been reported that HSBC is putting a hold on nearly 35,000 job cuts.
HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said: “Because of the extraordinary impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have decided to pause, for the time being, the vast majority of redundancies associated with this program where notices have not already been issued.”
Germany’s Deutsche Bank will pause 18,000 job cuts while Lloyds Bank has decided to halt its plans to trim around 780 positions.
In a memo to its employees, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said: “To avoid additional emotional distress in the current environment, we will defer new communications of individual restructuring actions to potentially affected employees.
“The pause will be in place until we see a return to greater stability in the world around us.”
A spokesperson for Lloyds said: “At this uncertain time, we have made the decision to stop the structural changes that were due to take place for some of our teams.
“Our focus is on supporting our customers and colleagues during this unprecedented time.”
