Finance
UBS latest bank to announce NJ job cuts as finance sector shrinks
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May Day Rally in Newark for NJ unemployment expansion: Video
Labor activists and unions gathered for a May Day Rally at Military Park in Newark on May 1, 2024, calling for a NJ unemployment benefits expansion.
Swiss bank UBS is laying off 51 employees at its Weehawken office, public records show, as New Jersey’s banking and finance sectors more broadly grapple with tightening budgets amid uncertain economic times.
UBS is reportedly looking to trim its costs by $13 billion, which includes cutting one in every 12 employees, according to Reuters. A spokesperson for UBS declined to comment for this story.
Data from state filings showed that five financial institutions announced New Jersey layoffs so far in 2024: The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, TD Bank, Prudential Financial, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Some of those banks — including Citibank and Charles Schwab — are cutting their head counts by the thousands or tens of thousands across their entire operations.
Nationwide, Charles Schwab is cutting 2,000 employees and Citibank 20,000 of its staff.
“Banks are reducing back-office costs, and this includes people and head count reductions, unfortunately,” said Christopher Marinac, director of research at Janney Montgomery Scott, a financial services firm. “Overall, bank earnings are stable and generally not growing. Further, bank balance sheets are not expanding much this year.”
One factor — the Federal Reserve, which has raised interest rates 11 times since the COVID-19 pandemic. That pushed mortgage rates higher for homebuyers, meaning fewer people obtained mortgages, prompting Wall Street to respond with layoffs, said a report by CNBC.
That resulted in the state’s first job losses in half a year, unemployment figures show.
“Banks are being careful on new lending and trying to retain more capital as the Federal Reserve is tightening standards and raising capital requirements soon,” Marinac said.
James Hughes, an economist at Rutgers University, told NorthJersey.com that white-collar jobs in banking and finance have become saturated after a two-year hiring spree that followed the COVID-19 pandemic.
Layoffs this year
New Jersey companies are letting go of more than 4,600 employees in 2024, public records show.
The layoffs include 2,774 job cuts announced in 2023 for this year, and another 1,847 cuts announced in the first three months of 2024.
Those cuts come at a time when New Jersey’s workforce posted a net loss in jobs for the first time in six months. Meanwhile, the state unemployment rate has hovered at 4.8% since September, state data shows.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook
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Twenty-six million dollars. That’s how much investing platform Robinhood paid out earlier this year after it was found to have breached a range of financial regulations. Amongst them? Failure to properly manage the social media influencers promoting their products. With these so-called “finfluencers” becoming an ubiquitous part of fintech marketing strategies, this eye-watering penalty should serve as a cautionary tale to brands putting content and reach above compliance and risk.
The world of the finfluencers has expanded dramatically in recent years. These young, passionate and social media savvy voices amass legions of fans and millions of views as they dole out advice on everything from stock tips to savings techniques. The main audience? Gen Z. Facing the dual pressures of a tough job market and the spiralling cost of living, Gen Zs are turning to social media for new routes to financial stability — hungry for insights and advice that will help them get ahead. With a huge 34% of Gen Zs saying they learn about personal finance from TikTok and YouTube, finfluencers have exploded in number, reach and power.
Acquiring Gen Z customers is a huge priority for marketing teams. In the world of financial products, customers are sticky. Get them young and you might have a customer for life. That’s why the rise of finfluencers represents a huge opportunity for companies operating across the finance, investment and savings space. And it’s one they’ve been tapping into.
On the surface, engaging finfluencers for paid partnership is a marketing slam duck for fintech and finance brands. Unlocking a route into Gen Z audiences via trusted, engaging voices. But, as Robinhood’s experience shows, the stakes are high when you get it wrong. Any company selling financial products or services is subject to a litany of regulation. And these high standards of compliance aren’t necessarily compatible with the fast-paced, algorithm-chasing game of social media content creation. It’s a conundrum that’s starting to trip brands up.
Alongside Robinhood, this year has also seen Public Investing fined $350k by the US regulator FINRA after influencers made misleading claims. And a recent crackdown from the UK’s financial regulator, the FCA, saw three individual finfluencers end up in court charged with encouraging high-risk strategies without the correct authorisation. Brands and the influencers they rely on are sailing far too close to the wind.
And this risk-reward matrix is only set to become more intense. The use of AI tooling in marketing is speeding up content creation and enabling thousands of iterations of adverts to run simultaneously. And brands are increasingly upping the percentage of marketing budget allocated to social media. Collectively, this is encouraging faster, more dynamic social strategies, with influencers forming a critical part. It’s putting marketers on a potential collision course with regulators cracking down on violations.
Companies leveraging social media partnership with a view to reaching Gen Z customers cannot afford to overlook this reality. From eye-watering fines to a tarnished brand, the implications of getting your social marketing wrong are severe.
But that doesn’t mean brands can’t play in this space. They just need to be smart about it.
Businesses swimming in this pool need to ensure they aren’t sidelining the compliance and risk management strategies that will keep them on the right side of regulation. This cannot be an afterthought. Marketing teams must invest in tooling, work closely with legal teams, and run stress tests on campaigns to ensure they are watertight.
Regulators are coming for finfluencers and the businesses that work with them. Companies should heed the warning and not let their quest for young, digitally-savvy customers rush them into an approach which could see them break the law and sink their finances. Instead, the same level of zeal applied to the creative should be applied to the compliance. They are two sides of the same coin. Combined, they’ll allow companies to cash in.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
The United States sanctioned financial operatives funneling tens of millions of dollars from Iran to Hizballah. These individuals collaborate with businessmen and exchanges to enable significant financial transfers from Iran and conduct covert business dealings that fund Hizballah’s terrorist activities.
This action supports President Trump’s whole of government policy of maximum pressure against Iran and its terrorist proxies like Hizballah, as detailed in National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 issued on February 4.
The United States is committed to supporting Lebanon by exposing and disrupting Iran’s covert financing of Hizballah. By enabling Hizballah, Iran holds Lebanon back and undermines its sovereignty. Iran and Hizballah cannot be allowed to keep Lebanon captive any longer. The United States will continue using every tool at its disposal to ensure this terrorist group no longer poses a threat to the Lebanese people or the broader region.
Today’s action is being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorists and their supporters. The Department of State designated Hizballah as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to E.O. 13224 on October 31, 2001, and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997. For more information, today’s designation can be found on the Press Release.
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