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SINGAPORE, Dec 1 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co has cut five staff from its energy trading operations in Singapore with immediate effect, industry sources said on Wednesday.
A JPMorgan spokeswoman based in Hong Kong declined to comment on the cuts, when contacted by Reuters.
The cuts include one operations employee, one structuring staffer, one naphtha trader, one energy salesperson and one risk management employee, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
In October, the Wall Street Journal reported that JPMorgan’s aggressive push into commodities trading would fall short of revenue goals this year and the business would be re-evaluated if it lagged again in 2011. [ID:nN09285898]
Besides the changes in Singapore, some jobs in JPMorgan’s Japan operations could also be axed, said the sources, who asked not to be named.
Traders said the cuts might also be related to consolidation efforts after the bank bought RBS Sempra’s global oil operations in July.
“It takes about 12 to 18 months to integrate the two companies, and the bank is probably doing some house-cleaning,” said a trader.
“And JPMorgan looks to be an easy target, not having met their revenue goals this year.” (Reporting by Jennifer Tan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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