NEW YORK - Citigroup is preparing fire thousands from its worldwide investment-banking division, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the layoffs are part of a plan to cut about 10 percent of the staff of the 65,000-member investment-banking group.
Messages left with Citigroup spokesmen on Sunday were not immediately returned. The Journal said the fired employees could be notified as early as Monday.
The New York-basked global bank, along with much of Wall Street, is in the throes of recovering from bad investments on mortgages and leveraged loans that cut billions of dollars from its portfolio.
It was not immediately clear if the reported job cuts would be in addition to cuts announced by Citigroup in April. After reporting a $5.1 billion first-quarter loss, the bank said then it was reducing its staff by 9,000, in addition to the 4,200 job cuts the bank announced late last year.
As of the end of last year, Citigroup had about 147,000 full-time employees.
In May, Citigroup unveiled a three-year plan that included getting rid of more businesses, mortgages, real-estate operations and jobs.
The bank called for shedding between $400 billion and $500 billion of its $2.2 trillion in assets and growing revenue by 9 percent over the next few years as it tries to rebound from the huge losses tied to deterioration in the credit markets.
Earlier this month, the bank said it was closing the Old Lane Partners hedge fund that was co-founded by Chief Executive Vikram Pandit. The bank is shuttering the fund just 11 months after it was acquired for more than $800 million.
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