BNY Mellon will lay off about 1,500 employees in 2023 — roughly 3% of the bank’s headcount, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Management will be the target of many of the reductions, sources told The Wall Street Journal, as the bank invests more in junior staff, technology and operations.
CEO Robin Vince, on an earnings call Friday, called for “instilling further expense discipline across the firm” and “focusing more on profitable new business growth, saying no to more things, when the economics aren’t what they should be,” according to Bloomberg.
Vince, however, reiterated the bank’s commitment to digital assets.
“This will continue to be a focus for us, not so much for crypto, but really the broader opportunity that exists across digital assets and distributed ledger technology,” Vince said Friday. “If anything, the recent events in the crypto market only further highlight the need for trusted regulated providers in the digital asset space.”
BNY Mellon began taking customers’ Bitcoin and Ether in October after receiving the New York Department of Financial Services’ approval to do so. The bank rolled out a multi-asset digital custody and administration platform — in development since February 2021 — to hold, transfer and issue crypto on behalf of asset-management clients.
BNY Mellon amassed $548 million in costs during the fourth quarter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bank counted $213 million in fourth-quarter expenses connected to costs, including severance and litigation reserves, according to Bloomberg. The bank’s $246 million increase in costs over the quarter stemmed mainly from severance, according to the wire service.
