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8 September 2011
HSBC details Hong Kong cuts
Euronews.net - HSBC says it will lay off 3,000 people in Hong Kong over the next three years as part of its aggressive cost-cutting plan in five places – Hong Kong, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Mexico.
Europe’s biggest bank said that by the end of 2013 that will involve 30,000 job losses – 10 percent of its staff.
But during the same period HSBC is likely to add fifteen thousand posts in Asia and other emerging markets.
“We will be focusing primarily on our support functions as we restructure to reduce management layers and improve efficiency,” HSBC Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Peter Wong said in an email to employees.
“This does mean jobs will be eliminated … Our best estimate at this time is that approximately 3,000 existing roles will be reduced over these three years,” Wong said.
Gulliver’s restructuring will see HSBC exit or scale back in countries such as Poland, Russia and the United States, where it lacks scale and has been struggling to compete.
He has said the bank’s cost base was “unacceptable”. He wants to get costs to below 52 percent of income, compared with 57.5 percent in the first half of this year.
