[ by Howard Haykin ]

State Street Corp., the 3rd-largest custody bank, had a great quarter - but that will not be enough to save the jobs of 630 employees, or 2% of its workforce.  For the quarter, profits rose 15%, revenues rose 7% - driven by a 29% jump in investment-management fees, its results beat analyst expectations, and the bank repurchased nearly 11 million shares over the past 3 months. 

The announcement of quarterly results, along with the job cuts pushed up the stock on Friday by as much as 7.5%.  The elimination of 630 jobs will be State Street's 3rd round of cuts in 2 years - all for the purpose of bolstering profits.  The three cuts combined brings reductions in the past 2 years to nearly 2,900 jobs. 

Happy New Year to the displaced workers!   The next announcement from State Street probably is that the bank has raised the bonuses of senior management.  Boo-yah!

For further details, go to:  [Bloomberg, 1/18/13].