Putnam Trims 260 Jobs

February 11, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Putnam Investments plans to cut 260 jobs primarily in sales and operations.

Reuters reported the staffing reduction, equal to 11% of Putnam’s workforce, is expected to bring the investment company’s new headcount to 2,140.

According to the news report, which quoted Putnam’s Head of Global Marketing and Products Jeffrey Carney, those affected will be notified Thursday. The company is a unit of Canadian insurer Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Carney told Reuters that the firm will rely heavily on selling its funds through financial advisers, which means that it can eliminate some of its own sales staff.

The action is the latest to be initiated by Robert Reynolds, who became Putnam’s chief executive last summer and has restructured the Boston-based company (See Fidelity Alum Train Continues Chugging Over to Putnam ).

Since taking over the top job at Putnam, Reynolds has reorganized the company’s mutual fund business and a number of prominent fund managers have left, including the company’s former head of investments Kevin Cronin (See Putnam Continues Efforts to Strengthen Investment Team ).

Putnam managed $101 billion in assets at the end of January, roughly 63% than what it had in 2003 when the firm was caught up in an industrywide trading scandal, Reuters reported.

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