ABN Amro swings axe on more jobs

TOP City bank ABN Amro is making huge staff cuts in its European equities business - just as rivals are signalling an upturn in business.

ABN has axed almost a third of its London-based equities research operation having already been hit over the past two months by the resignation of several of its most highly rated analysts.

Together, the departures mean that ABN has lost about half its London-based researchers.

The upheavals at Dutch-owned ABN follow a fierce struggle at the top of the bank over the role research should play in its equities business.

Mark Brown, head of global research, and Giles Fitzpatrick, head of European equities, left at the beginning of March.

Days later, ABN confirmed the two roles were being combined and staff were warned there were going to be 'significant cuts'.

ABN's global head of equities, Tim Boyce, spelled out the details last week, when about 30 analysts were made redundant

The cuts come on top of the loss of another 20 analysts, who quit ABN to take jobs elsewhere.

An ABN Amro spokesman said on Friday: 'We did have a bit of a head count reduction, but we are not commenting on that.'