One of the largest banks in the United States, Citigroup, has announced plans for about 52,000 additional job cuts - on top of 23,000 cuts already made this year.
Citigroup said the 75,000 job cuts represented a reduction of about 20% of its staff, leaving it with 300,000 jobs worldwide "in the near term".
The bank said the cuts will come from redundancies, the sale of units and natural wastage.
Citigroup has lost more than $US20 billion in the past year because of the global financial crisis.
It has reported four consecutive quarterly losses and some analysts believe the bank will not make a profit again until 2010.
However, the bank said its capital position was "very strong".
Citigroup expects expenses to be down 20% from peak levels to about $US50 billion in 2009 after the cuts take effect.
Shares in Citigroup dropped 4.4% to $US9.10 in early trading on Monday. They are down almost 70% this year.
Citigroup is one of nine financial institutions benefiting from the federal government's bail-out programme.
Treasury announced last month that it would provide cash injections worth $US125 billion to be shared between: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street and Merrill Lynch.
Local impact
The cuts are unlikely to cause much ripple in New Zealand.
Citi New Zealand closed its research division in Wellington and trimmed the number of personnel in its equity business last month, with the loss of six jobs.
Citi New Zealand has about 40 staff here and says the operation is profitable.
