WALL STREET TIGHTENS ITS BELT
* Merrill Lynch. The nation’s largest brokerage firm is restructuring or eliminating unprofitable areas, cutting costs and trimming investment banker bonuses. The firm, with 40,500 employees and 12,600 brokers worldwide, has cut 5,500 jobs since the end of 1987, including 550 this year. It says further layoffs are likely.
* Shearson Lehman Hutton. The second-largest firm on Wall Street recently reduced broker commissions for the first time in 15 years, shortly after it began laying off 800 people and restructuring senior management.
* Drexel Burnham Lambert. The firm, best known for its dominance of the junk bond market, has sold its entire retail brokerage business and is in the midst of a 300-employee cutback.
* Salomon Bros. Best known for bond trading, the firm is cutting back its investment banking operations and laying off about 100 executives by year-end.
* Goldman Sachs. One of the most profitable firms on Wall Street, Goldman is cutting year-end bonuses to reduce costs.
* Prudential-Bache. A major retail brokerage, Pru-Bache will cut back its investment banking staff as part of an effort to refocus attention on areas where it believes that it has a clear advantage. The number of layoffs has not been disclosed.
* First Boston. Two hundred jobs were cut in April, bringing post-crash layoffs at the investment banking firm to 1,000. The firm blamed poor conditions in the securities business.
