HSBC set to announce more job cuts to make it leaner and meaner

HSBC could announce more job cuts on Wednesday, when investors will be told that the chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, will push ahead with plans to produce a leaner, more streamlined bank.

The company has already reduced its global workforce from 300,000 to 254,000 through redundancies and the disposal or closure of 52 businesses since 2011.

Nine units have been dispensed with this year, including an exit from Panama, and the bank could dispose of up to 20 more businesses over the next two years.

But Mr Gulliver, pictured, has already signalled the need to keep a lid on costs, which could be partly accomplished by more redundancies.

The bank's chief executive has been attempting to pull off the tricky task of imposing more central control over HSBC's far-flung businesses while at the same time reducing the firm's notorious levels of bureaucracy.

This follows the nearly $2bn (£1.2bn) paid in US fines after investigators found that the company had been used as a conduit for "dirty money".

The sales and disposals are part of the control process, as the bank abandons the practice of "flag planting" in as many territories around the world as possible.

Some 4,300 staff are due to transfer to new companies as a result of deals signed this year by HSBC, which still has prominent positions in some of the world's most dynamic economies.