Deutsche Bank's axe swung from Sydney to London yesterday as it began laying off staff around the world under a €7.4 billion (S$11.3 billion) restructuring plan.

The massive overhaul will see Germany's biggest lender slash 18,000 jobs as it scraps its global equities business and cuts some of its fixed-income operations.

In Asia, the axe may thus fall harder in Hong Kong than Singapore, given that Hong Kong is the investment bank's Asia equities hub. Singapore is its Asia-Pacific hub for fixed-income and currencies business.

Employees in Hong Kong and London were seen leaving their offices holding large envelopes that reportedly contained layoff packages.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman in Singapore declined to comment on specific departures, adding the bank would be communicating directly with staff.

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