Citigroup to cut 1,000 jobs at Japan unit

TOKYO: Citigroup Inc. will slash some 1,000 jobs at its Japanese brokerage unit as part of the ailing U.S. banking giant's efforts to survive the financial meltdown, a report said Wednesday.

Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. will cut its work force through early retirement, and some 1,000 employees, mostly those aged above 40, have accepted severance offers, Kyodo News agency said, citing no sources.

The Japanese brokerage employs about 7,000 workers, and the job cuts will amount to 14 percent of its total work force.

A spokesman for Nikko Cordial's parent company, Nikko Citi Holdings, a subsidiary of Citigroup., declined to confirm the report.

Citigroup plans to slash 53,000 jobs worldwide, the second-largest job cuts by a US company on record, as the once-mighty banking giant is saddled with heavy losses and a shriveled stock price.

The U.S. government has agreed to guarantee risky Citigroup debt valued at $306 billion and also pump another $20 billion in cash into the ailing bank, on top of an earlier $25 billion injection that was part of the government's initial round of investments in troubled financial institutions.

Nikko's Japanese rival, Nomura Holdings Inc, announced last week that it will cut up to 1,000 jobs in London.
The move comes less than three months after Japan's top brokerage took over the global business of failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.