French banks to cut staff in the US

Three top French banks have announced job losses in the US because of difficulties in raising dollars. BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Crédit Agricole are to slash about 1,000 jobs overall according to a report in the financial daily, Les Echos. 

Reuters

Diony Lebot, chief executive of SocGen Americas, said the layoffs were dictated by the tightening of banking credit requirements and "the reduction of our financing in non-securitised dollars".

The US branch of Société Générale has already reduced 20 per cent of its 2,000-strong staff in New York, the newspaper said while BNP Paribas, which had announced layoffs in November, is expected to cut 10 per cent of its staff of 3,000 in its New York office.

Crédit Agricole has said it expects to slash 1,200 jobs outside of France although it is not known how many of those would be in New York.

French banks have been hit hard by their exposure to sovereign debt from eurozone strugglers like Greece and Italy and an increasing skittishness by US lenders to provide them with short-term financing in dollars.