HSBC to cut up to 10,000 jobs in bid to save costs
(7 October 2019 – Europe) HSBC is set to cut up to 10,000 jobs as its new interim chief executive Noel Quinn embarks on a cost-cutting drive.
The plan represents the lender’s most ambitious attempt to rein in costs in years with the Financial Times reporting a significant reduction in the bank’s headcount of roughly 238,000.
Any jobs cuts carried out as part of the latest plan would come on top of the 4,700 redundancies already announced in what the bank described as “an increasingly complex and challenging global environment” characterised by low interest rates, trade conflicts and Brexit uncertainty.
Mr Quinn started work on the new cost-cutting plan days after he was appointed as interim chief executive following the exit of his predecessor John Flint, who was dismissed in part because he avoided “difficult decisions” on job cuts.
Mr Quinn is working on the plan with Ewen Stevenson, chief financial officer, who substantially lowered costs when he held the same role at Royal Bank of Scotland.
Another source speaking with the FT said the plan would not prevent the bank from continuing to hire “revenue-generating” staff in high-growth regions in Asia, where it generates nearly 80 percent of its profits.
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