Sales teams hit as job cuts start at Goldman

Goldman Sachs is today starting to axe up to 220 jobs in London as part of its plan to reduce its global workforce by 10%.

The cull is part of its plan to remove 600 people from its Fleet Street offices.

"This is part of the overall headcount reduction previously announced," a spokesman for the firm said.

At the same time Credit Suisse began to tell up to 600 of its staff in Canary Wharf which of them are to lose their jobs. New York staff were given their notice last night.

Fears had been growing that the Goldman job cuts could go deeper than originally announced but the firm denied this. This week's round of cuts are believed to hit sales teams.

Goldman has lost several senior staff including Nick Weber, 36, the co-head of the European special situations group, part of the investment banking arm in London.

Alan Waxman, global co-head of the special situations group in New York and a partner, also left last month.

Their operations centred on investing in distressed assets and restructuring opportunities.

Goldman meanwhile, also plans to change its retirement rules to try to coax long-serving employees to leave now and further reduce its wages bill.

Under the new plans it will scrap current policy that allows employees whose combination of age and years of service exceeds 55 to collect all of their restricted stock awards on departure.

That will be tightened to an age-length of service criterion of 60.

Goldman is expected to report a quarterly loss of more than $2 billion (£1.35 billion) on Tuesday for the first time as a public company.