Credit Suisse First Boston started laying off senior investment bankers in Europe last week as part of plans to cut its global headcount by 2000, or 7%, by the year-end.

The bank is making cuts at all levels to eliminate $1bn (€1.1bn) in operating costs by the end of next year. Among the managing directors to go last week were Malik Karim, who was part of the financial institutions group (FIG), and Anthony Belinkoff and Andrew Durnford, both from the telecoms team.