Hundreds of top staff at CLSA, the Asia-focused brokerage arm of Crédit Agricole, have agreed to a take a voluntary pay cut of up to 25 per cent to stave off the threat of redundancy.

The firm’s 500 most senior employees were ordered to say, by Monday at the latest, whether they would accept a 15 per cent, 20 per cent or 25 per cent reduction in salary for 2009.