HSBC (0005) is kicking off a fresh round of job cuts at its investment bank as new chief executive Georges Elhedery continues his overhaul of Europe’s biggest lender, according to people familiar with the matter.
The latest phase of cuts will start in Asia, but will ultimately affect employees globally, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. It’s not clear how many people will be affected by the moves.
Some cuts are already underway in the firm’s markets division but wider layoffs across the investment bank will begin as early as Monday, the people said. The dismissals will be staggered over several weeks and months, one of the people said. Staff will be let go based on performance as well as to remove duplication of jobs or to simplify operations, the person said.
“As announced on October 2024, HSBC is focused on increasing leadership and market share in the areas where it has a clear competitive advantage and where it has the greatest opportunities to grow,” an HSBC spokesperson said in an emailed response to Bloomberg inquiry.
Elhedery is seeking to reduce costs with a restructuring that has so far included combining the commercial banking division with its global banking and markets unit and pulling out of some underwriting and advisory businesses in Europe and the Americas.
Since taking charge in September, Elhedery has already cut the size of his own group executive committee by about a third. Reductions to senior staffers were expected to affect a little over 40 percent of the company’s top 175 managers, Bloomberg reported in December. The bank has said it expects to complete the moves by June.
HSBC has said it will provide more clarity on the scale of the restructuring when it reports its full-year results on Feb. 19. The bank is forecast by analysts to post pre-tax profit of US$31.7 billion (HK$247.26 billion) for 2024, a 4.6 percent increase from the previous year. The stock rose 0.5 percent on Thursday morning in Hong Kong trading to around a seven-year high.
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Georges Elhedery. Bloomberg
