Axa Asia-Pacific Holdings has told 90 staff they will lose their jobs.
Axa Asia-Pacific Holdings (Axa-APH) has told 90 employees they will be dismissed, an Axa-APH spokesperson has confirmed.
Those affected have been notified and have either already left the firm or will leave in due course. The cuts affect various divisions.
Contents of an e-mail sent to employees by Axa Australia chief executive Warren Lee were also confirmed by the spokesperson.
"While we have a robust and resilient business, we need to adapt and redefine in response to this challenging environment," Lee said in the e-mail.
"After much consideration we are proposing to make some organisational changes."
As he joined the chorus of employers making staff cuts on the verge of Christmas, Lee said he knew the news was unsettling.
Finance Sector Union of Australia communications and campaigns officer, Leanne Shingles, told InvestorDaily it was unacceptable for firms to axe jobs and leave families in pain, especially at Christmas, only to protect stock prices.
Axa-APH had no further redundancies planned and the group was still looking to add advisers, the spokesperson said.
In the final quarter of 2008 so far, BlackRock has cut 10 jobs, AMP has retrenched 46 employees, Babcock and Brown has announced plans to shed 850 staff and Macquarie Group is said to have let go of 100 people.
The global financial services sector has purged over 200,000 payrolls since the United States mortgage market imploded last year.
In Part 2 of our exclusive series, we ask leading names to nominate their best investments, the most effective industry group and the importance of platforms.
