The California-based investment management group employs some 9,000 people globally, managing around $1 trillion of assets. Its managers were quoted in Le Temps in Geneva as confirming that a little under half the redundancies will be suffered in Geneva where 350 staff are employed.

Reports suggest that some 30 staff were let go last year, which gave some hope of a reprieve for those remaining at the firm. The administrative and back office functions will bear the brunt of the restructuring.

The company appears to have suffered a double blow with a combination of market downturns and client withdrawals, resulting in a significant drop in assets under management. The company has stated, however, that the reduction is more in line with general global market falls than some reports suggest.

Simon Levell, spokesman for Capital International, confirmed to WealthBriefing that the layoffs have been announced but not quite at the levels that are being reported in the Swiss press.

Some 200 positions will be cut in London and Geneva out of a total of 850 staff, he said. This reflects two underlying causes – a reduction in assets under management in the two European offices from an already reduced end of September 2008 figure of $45 billion, to a year end figure of nearer $36 billion  - but also a strategic move to centralize Information Technology facilities back in the US. Of the layoffs, some 170 affected posts are in the area of IT.

“We remain committed to Geneva. We have been operating there since 1962 and the office is core to our strategy and essential in meeting our client needs,” said Mr Levell.

“We believe that our computer professionals’ certified competency, in an expanding sector hit by a certain shortage, will allow them to rapidly find another job”, François Note, head of human resources for Europe at Capital International, said in a statement.

“Our management and analysis teams are in no way affected by this strategic refocusing of our IT. Our Geneva office has been a key element of our global asset managing capacity since 1962 and it will remain the case after the changes we have announced,” Nilly Sikorsky, who chairs the group’s board, said in the same statement from Capital International.

“After this reorganization, alongside our investment team in the Place des Bergues, our offices in Lancy remain the Group’s most important operational center outside the United States, more particularly concerning our funds for non-American clients. We are very proud of the long track-record of Capital Group Companies in Geneva. In spite of the current economic situation, our presence in Geneva is one of the corner stones of our long-term development,” Luis Freitas de Oliveira, chief executive of Capital International, added in the statement.