BNP Paribas said it would cut 5 per cent of staff in its corporate and investment banking division after the unit made a loss of 710 million euros in the first 11 months of the year. -- PHOTO:
PARIS - FRENCH bank BNP Paribas said on Tuesday it would cut 5.0 per cent of staff in its corporate and investment banking division after the unit made a loss of 710 million euros in the first 11 months of the year.
'Given the high cost of risk, CIB's pretax profit for the first 11 months of the year registered a 710 million (S$1.03 billion) loss,' BNP Paribas said in a statement, adding that the figure included a 350-million-euro hit from the Bernard Madoff scandal.
'Thanks to the group's diverse activities and the dominance of retail banking in its business mix, BNP Paribas, naturally, is largely profitable over the first 11 months of the year,' the company added.
Due to the 'enduringly difficult environment', the CIB division will implement a package of measures including cutting its worldwide staffing levels by around 5.0 per cent.
New York investment manager Bernard Madoff is alleged to have lost up to US$50 billion (S$74.45 billion) through a pyramid trading scheme which collapsed because of the financial crisis.
BNP Paribas announced its exposure on Sunday of up to 350 million euros (S$709.3 million). -- AFP
