US - Finance bank American Express will be cutting about 4,000 jobs this year as part of an S$1.1 billion global restructuring operation.

Announced on Monday, the job cuts will reduce the credit company's worldwide headcount by 6%. Investments are also going to be scaled back and operating costs will be slashed, according to a report by Channel NewsAsia. This initiative comes after a 56% drop in quarterly earnings to S$648 million.

The planned job cuts would allow them to cut S$256 million from their budget and reducing investments on marketing and business development would save them another S$732 million. American Express is also planning to cut another S$183 million from operating costs.

Its chairman and chief executive Kenneth Chenualt believes these efforts will put the company "in a better position to remain profitable and free up some additional resources" for reinvestment opportunities. Even though American Express has remained "solidly profitable at a time when some parts of the card industry were incurring substantial losses", Chenualt says, "We continue to be very cautious about the economic outlook."