Dresdner Bank is firing 1,500 bankers in corporate and investment banking as it retrenches its operations back into Europe.

The bank said that it would lay-off 1,500 staff in a move which will save around €500m ($442m) a year. It did not give a geographical breakdown of where the cuts will come. It is understood however that corporate lending and the domestic investment banking businesses in the US and Asia will be hardest hit. The cutbacks are among the most severe of any firm in the current downturn in investment banking activity.