A man walks in front of the Bank of Nova Scotia building in the financial district in Toronto on June 2, 2014.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Bank of Nova Scotia has trimmed the size of its capital markets arm, making the changes right before the fiscal year ends.
Over the past week Scotiabank laid off front-office people in a number of groups, with cuts coming in business lines such as Global Equity & Advisory and Global Foreign Exchange and Global Fixed Income. The exact number of cuts isn't available, but the bank said it "eliminated a small number of positions."
The changes come in what is an uneven year for performance. Some areas of the business, such as mergers and acquisition advisory, have boomed, boosted by energy deal flow, while others haven't fared so well.
Earlier this year Scotiabank also had a change at the top level of capital markets after Steve McDonald, one of the firm's co-heads, left, leaving Mike Durland to run the show alone.
The note below went out to Scotiabank staff Thursday night:
"We are approaching the end of a fiscal year that was challenging for some areas of our business. Like any organization, we continually review our operations to ensure we are operating efficiently and in a customer-focused way. As such, we are streamlining certain capital markets businesses and have eliminated a small number of positions, primarily front-office roles in Global Banking & Markets, effective immediately."
Tim Kiladze