HSBC to cut 8,000 jobs in UK

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, plans to cut 8,000 jobs in Britain as part of a savings drive.

Forty eight thousand people work for HSBC in the UK and the job losses will hit both the investment and retail banking sectors.

Staff turnover currently stands at 3,000 but chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, has said that the job losses would be made by ‘natural attrition.’

Globally, HSBC plans to lose 25,000 jobs, around 10 per cent of its global workforce.

The bank also plans to rebrand its UK high street bank branches but has not yet announced under which name. It is thought possible that it will use the old Midland Bank name; HSBC bought Midland Bank in 1992 – or it could use its on-line bank name, First Direct.

According to Stuart Gulliver, the name change is so that British customers are able to distinguish between HSBC’s retail banking and investment operations. New government regulations mean that the bank has to separate the two businesses.

National officer of union Unite, Daniel Hook, said that it was very sad that union members at HSBC would be paying with their jobs for all the scandals that have hit the bank over the past few years.

HSBC has also said that it may move its headquarters out of Britain and will announce its decision at the end of this year. There has been speculation that it may relocate to Hong Kong.

Shares fell by 0.9 per cent immediately after the news of the proposed job losses was announced. HSBC is valued at close to £120 billion.

BBC business editor, Kamal Ahmed, said that global banking is far harder now to run as a profit-making business than it was before the financial crisis and that Stuart Gulliver is running a bank which investors don’t believe is making enough money.