The latest cuts, part of a drive announced roughly a year ago to reduce staff by 9,000 from just under 100,000 now, will result in a reduction of about 20 percent in equity trading, the people said.

The Wall Street Journal said that 300 people would be affected by broader cuts that include paring back bond trading.

Although Chief Executive John Cryan had said he wanted to boost equity trading, it struggled in the final three months of last year. The bank declined to comment.

On Thursday the bank revealed that it had fallen further behind its Wall Street rivals in 2016, lagging in the strong rebound in bond trading in the last three months of the year and putting further pressure on Cryan ahead of an expected strategy update this spring.

(Reporting by Kathrin Jones; Editing by Greg Mahlich)