It's a season of lay-offs and pay cuts in broking biz

Saikat Das

Moneycontrol.com

Employees at stock broking houses are bracing for one of the coldest winters of their lives. Faced with continuing decline in revenues, many domestic brokerages are cutting salaries and firing employees to reduce operating costs and stay profitable. Industry watchers expect this trend to intensify in the coming weeks, as the ongoing slowdown in the economy is likely to get worse.

Last week, Religare Capital is reported to have fired dozen-odd employees from the equity division. Indiabulls Securities, IIFL (formerly India Infoline), Sharekhan, Centrum and Motilal Oswal Securities are among the brokerages that have either fired employees or cut salaries over the last 4-6 weeks.

In an e-mail response to Moneycontrol.com