BNP Paribas completely eliminated its distressed finance group, a spokeswoman confirmed.
The distressed finance group was cut within the last two weeks. Staff from that group have either been laid off or assigned elsewhere. The group was founded only this past September.
The French bank is working through a 5% overall reduction in staff it announced in December.
BNP has also folded its stand-alone high yield group into debt captial markets.
John Ong, BNPs global head of high yield, left the firm in late January as the stand-alone high yield group was eliminated. Ong joined the firm in 2000 as head of European high-yield origination and capital markets.
Youssef Khlat, the European head of high yield capital markets, has also left. Khlat, a Deutsche Bank veteran, joined the firm in 2004.
BNP Paribas corporate and investment banking group lost 710 million ($909 million) in the first 11 months of last year.
