JPMorgan Chase is reportedly cutting about 40 investment bankers in North America.

According to Bloomberg, the cuts span across all levels of seniority. They come after more than a year of rising interest rates and economic turmoil which has dampened the dealmaking climate, with JPMorgan Chase’s investment banking and trading revenues both set for decline in the second quarter.

These are the latest cuts from the bank, and come days after it eliminated around 20 investment-banking jobs in Asia, a second round of cuts in the region.

Rivals including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have also cut thousands of jobs over the past year in an effort to ensure stability at the most uncertain time for the financial sector since 2008.

The source cited by Bloomberg said that the staff reductions are typical given the economic environment. The bank continues to hire executives and bankers in other key areas of the business.

Separately in an interview with a Bloomberg podcast, Jared Gross, managing director and head of institutional portfolio strategy at JPMorgan Chase commented on the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the financial sector.

He said that the “equilibrium that existed pre-Covid was somewhat fragile” and that “when Covid hit, the fiscal authorities woke up, they started spending money, and the monetary authorities actually financed it.”

In light of the current economic uncertainty and skyrocketing interest rates, Gross said: “If you’re looking for a backstop for market volatility, you probably can’t depend on the monetary authorities as much as you used to, because they now have to be very careful, given the amount of fiscal stimulus in the economy. They can’t just cut rates because stocks go down. They can’t just cut rates because a bank is wobbling.”

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