Top Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch plans to cut 20 per cent of its investment management unit work force by the end of the year, the company said today.
The group, which manages $525 billion in total assets, will cut its number of employees to 3,600 from 4,500 to cut costs. Most of the job cuts have already been made, a spokesman said.
Merrill cut 350 jobs by partnering with State Street, which now provides services for Merrill's mutual funds. An additional 150 information technology positions have also been eliminated, the spokesman said.
The remainder of the cuts will be made by outsourcing accounting and back-office operations or through attrition, meaning Merrill will not replace people who leave the firm.
Merrill, like most of its rivals, has scrambled to cut costs as brokerage and investment banking revenues fall. A prolonged stock market slump has kept investors from playing stocks and scared companies away from doing the big deals that provide lucrative fees for Wall Street firms.
Merrill shares closed at $66.30 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange, below their 52-week high of $80 set in late January.