Deutsche Bank plans to slash workforce by a quarter - Reuters

It's compelling to believe that culling back office staff can reduce costs without impacting service. It's all too easy, however, to lose the expertise that makes things work. Banks which have made this error find it difficult to effect changes and even harder to recover when things go wrong. Persistent failures, for example in payment services, soon create customer dissatisfaction and loss of business. Deutsche must ensure this move doesn't damage its operational capability and thus its reputation.

This is going to be the situation for most large banks. They have spent massive amounts on technology that in theory should remove a lot of paper shuffeling. One can only wonder why they haven't slowly reduced staff a long time ago. Sacking people in large numbers is not painless and good staff (Especially those working with technology) are likely to move from the negative thinking and into more positive organisations.

As a former banker I was told I had to cut operating expenses. The outcome was not pretty. The good people will leave first. The bank will be left with third stringers with a labor union attitude. Good luck on this.