Two of the most senior investment bankers at Merrill Lynch left the group yesterday amid fresh casualties from the credit crunch.

Osman Semerci, the London-based global head of Merrill’s huge fixed-income, commodities and currencies (FICC) division, left the bank along with Dale Lattanzio, head of the division’s US operations. Last night Merrill confirmed that Mr Semerci would be replaced by David Sobotka, head of the global commodities business.

The upheaval will spark fresh speculation that the bank is likely to report heavy losses from sub-prime collateralised debt obligations. It said last month that it might have to book losses from these investment vehicles.

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, unveiled a €2.2 billion (£1.53 billion) charge and Bear Stearns, of the United States, stripped away a further 310 jobs yesterday, in another day of agony for the global banking sector.

In Britain, job losses as a result of the liquidity freeze have been contained so far, but the industry is braced for a hiring slowdown as banks wrestle with their budgets for the coming year. For workers in boom areas such as equities trading and corporate finance advisory, however, bonuses remain assured.

As a big participant in the credit markets and leveraged lending, Deutsche Bank has been among the banks most exposed to the meltdown in the American sub-prime mortgage market and its knock-on effects.

Josef Ackermann, the chief executive, admitted yesterday that the bank would write down about €1.5 billion on securities backed by residential mortgages in the third quarter, on top of a ¤Dr Ackermann’s comments came as it emerged that Bear Stearns had laid off staff in its mortgage businesses. It is the second round of lay-offs at the bank, which cut 240 jobs in August. Bear Stearns is due to update investors today on its mortgage-related activities.

Bear Stearns’s cuts followed 170 job losses at Credit Suisse’s investment bank, half of whom will be lost from the fixed-income department. Others were “performance-related” dismissals, a source said. This is in addition to 150 job losses last week in the Swiss Bank’s mortgage-backed securities business. UBS also said on Monday that it would cut 1,500 jobs worldwide by Christmas.

So far this year, the world’s biggest investment banks have announced more than 33,000 job losses. More than 40,000 people are employed by these banks in the City, but their employers are coy about where the axe will fall. Only Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers have specified that British jobs are on the block.

At the banks that have not announced British job cuts, there is an atmosphere of business as usual, even in the departments where counterparts at rival banks are now packing their bags. One banker said: “I don’t get a feeling of concern when I walk around our floor. But it is specific to particular banks and even to particular departments. Our mortgage-backed securities guys seem chirpy, but I wouldn’t be feeling so comfortable if I was at UBS right now.”

Sources say that the damage to the City job market will not be clear until February, when the traditional bank hiring period begins. Some banks slowed their hiring programmes at the beginning of the year and put further brakes on new hires at the end of the second quarter.

Vic Daniels, publisher of hereisthecity.com, a City news and recruitment website, said: “We’ve seen the return of the internal candidate. They’d rather place people they were going to lay off than get someone from outside.”

An investment banking consultant said that UK jobs were being cut only in areas directly related to mortgage origination and packaging, but he said that banks were considering the futures of their structured credit operations. “Some banks we work for aren’t sure that that business is ever going to come back,” he said. “They’re cutting headcount in some divisions but moving the talent into other areas.”

Banks usually put together their budgets in September for the following year, but at least two banks have postponed the process for a month because it is unclear which business areas will remain in 2008.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research has increased its prediction of City job cuts by 1,000 to 6,000 job losses due over the coming months. The independent think tank has, however, stuck to its forecast made in August of a 15 per cent reduction in the total annual bonus payout from last year’s record of £8.8 billion.

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