Citigroup Inc. (C.N) is preparing hundreds of job cuts at its slumping trading division as more of the world’s largest firms respond to dormant clients with layoffs.

The firm plans to slash jobs across its fixed-income and stock trading business over the course of 2019, according to people familiar with the matter. That includes at least 100 jobs in its equities unit, which would amount to almost 10 per cent of that division, said the people, who requested anonymity as details aren’t public.

The biggest Wall Street banks are facing their lowest first-half trading revenue in more than a decade as they contend with reticent clients spooked by a global trade war and volatility in asset prices hovering around record lows.

Deutsche Bank made the biggest move earlier this month, when the firm announced it was exiting equities trading as part of restructuring that included 18,000 job cuts. Other major banks in Europe, including HSBC Holdings Plc and Societe Generale SA, are also firing hundreds of workers in an atmosphere that may be the gloomiest since the financial crisis.

A Citigroup representative declined to comment.

The bank also is combining its equities business with its prime, futures and securities services unit, according to an internal memo Monday.

Revenue from trading equities at Citigroup tumbled 17 per cent to US$1.6 billion for the first half of 2019, driving a five per cent drop in total trading. That’s the lowest equity total among major U.S. firms, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

Citigroup executives said this month they would continue to cut costs in the second half of the year after trimming more than analysts expected last quarter.

“We’re going to do everything within our power” to meet a goal of a 12 per cent return on tangible equity this year, Chief Executive Officer Mike Corbat said after the bank announced earnings on July 15. The firm won’t end planned investments in technology or risk its efforts to improve safety and soundness, he said. “But everything else is on the table.”

--With assistance from Jenny Surane.