Crédit Agricole, the French bank, has cut more than a sixth of the staff at its CAI Cheuvreux brokerage arm as part of a plan to cut costs following its €19.5bn ($23.1bn) acquisition of Crédit Lyonnais. CAI Cheuvreux was rated top broker in France in the Thomson Extel analysts' survey.

The bank has cut 138 out of a total of 870 positions at its institutional business and retail division, CLC Bourse. It declined to comment on where the cuts had fallen but at least eight people are understood to have left the institutional brokerage.