Wall Street is experiencing some of the most brutal job cuts we've seen

Thomson Reuters

The Japanese bank Nomura may be about to unleash some of the most brutal job cuts Wall Street has seen.

The firm could lay off about 20% of its staff in North America, Bloomberg's Kiel Porter, Hugh Son, and Takahiko Hyuga report.

The plans have not been fully firmed up yet, but one senior manager Bloomberg spoke to said that the number could be as high as 30%.

Wall Street banks have had a rough go of it lately.

The first quarter has been the worst for investment-banking revenues since the dark post-financial days of 2009.

Trading businesses have been hit especially hard, while banking revenues are down in large part because of a weak initial public offering market.

On Wednesday, Credit Suisse announced that it was laying off 2,000 people in addition to the 4,000 jobs it had already planned to cut as part of a major reorganization.

Everyone from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to Deutsche Bank to Goldman Sachs have cut headcount this year.

Read the full story over at Bloomberg »

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