EXCLUSIVE-Credit Suisse to cut 150 UK securities jobs

LONDON (Reuters) - Investment bank Credit Suisse said on Monday it plans to cut about 150 jobs in Britain, as banks continue to react to a recent slowdown in markets and shed staff.

"Due to market conditions and projected staffing levels required to meet client needs, we are reducing headcount by approximately 150 in the United Kingdom across our Global Securities department within the Investment Banking Division," a spokeswoman for the bank said.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the bank is currently in consultation over the cuts and that the securities unit's fixed-income division is likely to take a high proportion of the cuts.

Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), whose new 150 job cuts in London are additional to the worldwide headcount reduction of 170 announced in October, joins others in shedding London staff as the credit crunch hits balance sheets and earnings outlooks.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM.TO) said last month it planned to cut about 10 percent of its London workforce, while Dresdner Kleinwort, part of Allianz (ALVG.DE), said in December it planned to cut about 60 jobs in its credit department.

Credit Suisse's investment bank was hit by writedowns of more than 2.2 billion Swiss francs (1.0 billion pounds) in November, a modest blow when compared to other banks, particularly arch-rival UBS (UBSN.VX), which has racked up $14.5 billion (7.4 billion pounds) in writedowns.

UBS said in October it was slashing 1,500 jobs in its capital markets and investment banking businesses worldwide.

The Credit Suisse spokeswoman added the bank plans to invest in other areas.

"Over the next year, we also expect to continue to invest in areas targeted for revenue growth, most notably Algorithmic Trading, Emerging Markets, Commodities, Derivatives, Life Finance and Prime Services," said.