RBC moves with job cuts on U.S., Canada capital markets desks

Royal Bank of Canada pushed ahead with a round of job cuts in its capital markets operations, part of broader reductions announced in August that may climb above 1,000 positions and are aimed at helping the bank deal with a challenging economic environment.

Lawrence McKean, who was an asset-backed securities trader, and Diana Di Luca, a preferred share and convertible bond trader — both based in Toronto — are among the departing staff, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Melissa Primrose, a leveraged finance salesperson in New York and Vancouver-based Miles Kirkwood also recently left the bank, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing moves.

Canada’s largest bank last month said it plans to cut as much as 2 per cent of its full-time equivalent staff in the coming quarter after a surge in expenses weighed on third-quarter results. The bank had 93,753 employees as of July 31. Non-interest expenses climbed 23 per cent to $7.86 billion (US$5.84 billion) for the fiscal third quarter, compared with the $7.31 billion average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

 “As disclosed at Q3, we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our team size by one to two percent in the current quarter,” said Jeff Lanthier, a communications officer at RBC, in an email. “This isn’t a path that RBC has taken very often, and we’re committed to supporting those impacted with fairness and respect through this transition.”