HSBC set to cut 4700 jobs worldwide

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HSBC has officially announced plans to shed 4700 from its global operations – representing about 2% of its workforce worldwide.

As of 30 June, the London-headquartered bank had a total payroll of almost 238,000.

“We expect this year to have US$650 million to US$700 million in severance costs,” said the bank’s chief financial officer, Ewen Stevenson, in a call with analysts on Tuesday.

“It’s about 4% of our total salary costs, so you should assume from that it’s targeted at more senior people in the organisation.”

He said the job cuts would come from lay-offs, in addition to natural attrition, adding that “most areas of the bank have been involved in cutting headcount”.

“I’m not going to give too much colour on where the job cuts are coming,” he said.

“Broadly, we are adding headcount where we see good growth and good returns. Various parts of Asia and Hong Kong would fall into that bucket. We’re cutting headcount in other areas where there isn’t the same growth and return dynamic.”

According to HSBC, it added 2,468 full-time positions in the first half of 2019, spurred by investments in growing parts of its commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management operations, in addition to investments in its digital operations, it was reported in the SCMP.

In addition to the expected job cuts, HSBC also had one more sudden departure this week with the surprise announcement that chief executive John Flint had been ousted, with the bank now beginning its search to find a replacement for the top job.

HSBC’s job cuts follows the announcement last month by Deutsche Bank that it would slash 18,000 jobs, while Japanese finance firm Nomura Holdings said earlier this year it intended to shed 150 jobs across its business.