Turmoil in emerging markets is often bad news for some trading professionals specializing in these regions, with pinks slips and cutbacks a regular occurrence. Bankers Trust Corporation for example fired 20 traders from the New York emerging-markets desk of subsidiary BT Alex. Brown & Sons in late October, a reliable bank official confirmed. The 20 professionals worked mostly with Latin American securities in the equity and fixed-income sales and trading areas. The firings leave 15 traders on the emerging-markets desk. The bank official said five more employees may still be transferred off the desk before the end of the year.
The firings come just weeks after Bankers Trust eliminated 34 jobs in its Mexico City office, and brought the remaining Mexican traders to New York. The cuts were part of an expense-reduction program announced after Bankers Trust disclosed larger-than-expected losses in the third quarter. The bank plans to reduce expenses by $300 million or eight percent a year by scaling back some of its riskier businesses. Last month, Bankers Trust announced losses of $488 million in the third quarter, its largest quarterly decline in nine years.
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