Northern Trust axing 700 jobs

• Reprints

Updated: January 18, 2012 1:30PM

Northern Trust Corp. plans to cut 700 positions, the bank said Wednesday as it announced a 17.1 percent drop in fourth quarter net income from a year earlier.

Chicago-based Northern, which employs roughly 6,600 people in Illinois out of more than 14,000 globally, would not specify how many of the cuts will take place in Chicago.

But roughly half of the cuts are in Europe, and most workers there have been notified, a spokesman said. The rest of the cuts will take place in the United States. Most who will lose their jobs domestically, will be notified this quarter, while the remainder will be told in the next 12 to 18 months, the spokesman added, noting, the cuts will be “distributed business unit by business unit, region by region.”

In addition to the 700 planned cuts, additional positions will be eliminated through attrition and by closing open posts, the bank said.

Northern Trust is in the midst of a restructuring designed to save $250 million by the end of 2013.

The financial institution said it earned $130.2 million, or 53 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, down from $157.1 million, or 64 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its net income was impacted by restructuring, acquisition and integration charges that totaled $61 million pre-tax—$39.8 million after tax, or 17 cents per share.

“Our results for the fourth quarter and the full year reflect strong new business but were impacted by the difficult conditions in which we currently operate,” Frederick Waddell, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We have been actively analyzing various aspects of our business and technology to identify opportunities to deliver more value to our clients and shareholders. Through these efforts we have developed and begun to implement initiatives that we expect will sustainably improve productivity and profitability.”