HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd. plans to cut about 30 jobs at its equities division in Asia after a slump in trading volumes that prompted other firms to pare back, a person familiar with the matter said.

The Sydney-based bank started informing staff last Friday of the planned reductions, which would represent about 8 per cent of the division's workforce, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter isn't public. The cuts would be in Hong Kong, Japan and India, the person said.

Jeffrey Chung, the Hong Kong-based head of sales for Asia cash equities, is among those leaving, two people familiar said.

Investment banks including Nomura Holdings Inc. and BNP Paribas SA have scaled back parts of Asian equities businesses this year to help weather the slump. Barclays Plc announced in January the closure of cash-equities businesses in seven Asian countries as part of a restructuring to focus on its most profitable businesses in the U.S. and the U.K.

Macquarie has hired 32 people in Asia since January, with 15 of them in Hong Kong and 10 in Japan, one of the people said.