By Lionel Laurent and Sophie Sassard
PARIS/LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - French bankers are bracing themselves for a rough end to the year as job cuts, pressure on bonuses and a broad drive to slash costs cast a shadow over BNP Paribas and Societe Generale's upcoming quarterly results announcements.
French lenders have already announced sweeping asset sales and are now looking for additional measures to plug an estimated capital shortfall of 8.8 billion euros ($12.4 billion) without help from shareholders or the taxpayer.
Bankers, union sources and headhunters say this will inevitably lead to hundreds of job cuts at BNP and SocGen, with the burden falling largely on corporate and investment banking (CIB) and in particular asset financing.
Some say New York and London will be harder hit than Paris, where labour laws are stricter and layoffs more tightly regulated.
"We know that CIB will be hit hard," said a union representative at BNP, which is expected to give more details when it reports quarterly results on Nov. 3.
"The bank has said it is pulling out of some markets, some international platforms, New York, the Gulf, Asia...There's going to be an impact."
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