Type
Internal restructuring
Country
World
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
United Kingdom, Turkey, Brazil, World
Sector
Financial Services
Financial And Insurance Activities
Financial Service Activities, Except Insurance And Pension Funding
64 - Financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding

25,000 - 50,000 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
Announcement Date
9 June 2015
Employment effect (start)
30 June 2015
Foreseen end date
31 December 2017

Description

Multinational bank HSBC has announced plans to reduce its global headcount by 50,000 by the end of 2017. The foreseen restructuring plans will lead to almost one in five jobs of the bank’s global workforce, which currently amounts to around 260,000 people, being lost. It is foreseen that 25,000 of the planned job reductions will be achieved by selling the bank’s operations in Turkey and Brazil. A further 22,000 to 25,000 job cuts would be achieved by 2017 through cost reductions across the group. The bank said that automation of operations will help cut 12,000 to 13,000 of those jobs. It is foreseen that up to 8,000 of the planned job cuts will affect the bank’s UK workforce, which currently amounts to 48,000 staff (see UK factsheet). Through this restructuring, the bank will try to achieve up to $5 billion in annual cost cuts by 2017.

As part of the announcement, the bank said that it would refocus its business on Asia and consider whether to move its global headquarters from the UK back to Hong Kong, from where it had moved in 1992.


Sources

  • 9 June 2015: Reuters
  • 9 June 2015: The Wall Street Journal
  • 9 June 2015: BBC (www.bbc.com)

Citation

Eurofound (2015), HSBC, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 83664, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/83664.