HSBC confirms 2,200 job losses

Banking giant HSBC today said it was “eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy” as it confirmed more than 2,200 job cuts in the UK.

The bank, which employs 52,000 in the UK, said it would reduce the number of roles by 3,167 but expected just under 1,000 to find positions elsewhere in the company, leaving the rest out of a job.

Senior and middle management positions will be hit, HSBC said, while the bank's 1,250 branches will emerge relatively unscathed from the latest round of cuts.

The losses are part of plans announced by chief executive Stuart Gulliver last year to slash 30,000 jobs, or 10% of the bank's global workforce, by 2013.

David Fleming, national officer at Unite, said: "There is no justification for this awful treatment of staff."

HSBC, which serves around 16 million customers in the UK, said only a small proportion of customer-facing staff would be impacted by today's decision.

The bank is in the midst of group-wide restructuring programme to cut layers of management and streamline its IT requirements.

The bank blamed the job cuts on changes to regulation in the UK, such as the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), and growing capital requirements.

HSBC said around a quarter of staff changes are in anticipation of the likely impact on business levels caused by the RDR, which will mean UK banks can no longer offer financial advice for free.

Brian Robertson, HSBC Bank chief executive, said: "We have taken the difficult decision to restructure HSBC in the UK in order to reduce layers of management and bureaucracy.

"These changes will enhance our efficiency as detailed in the strategy we announced last May and they will also help ensure our continued profitability in the face of the changing regulatory landscape."

The bank said most business areas as well as most geographic regions within the UK will be impacted.

HSBC cut 5,000 jobs globally last year, including 700 in the UK.

Mr Gulliver announced in August that the cuts would go deeper than previously announced, bringing the total to 30,000. The drive is thought to have saved the bank £2.1 billion last year.

PA