Banks take the knife to real estate units BOSSES of some of Australia's largest investment banks are overhauling their real estate operations, with most of the top groups having axed staff and at least one considering a move deeper into unlisted wholesale real estate funding. Almost all the big banks have let go of at least one senior investment banker from their real estate teams in the past 18 months, including UBS, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche and Merrill Lynch.