HSBC Confirms 2,217 Job Cuts In The UK

HSBC has confirmed it is to cut 2,217 banking jobs in the UK by the end of next year.

HSBC, which is Europe's biggest bank, made an official announcement about the job losses the day after Sky News broke the news.

The move is part of a drive to slash costs and boost profitability in the face of a changing banking landscape.

The Unite union said 3,167 roles would be impacted by the cuts, but HSBC said almost 1,000 staff would be redeployed or other positions would be created elsewhere, and the net job loss would be 2,217.

The job losses will affect about 5% of the bank's 52,000-strong UK workforce.

HSBC said the cuts would mainly impact senior or middle management positions but that all business areas and "most geographic regions" within the UK would be affected in some way, including a small proportion of customer facing staff.

Its 1,250 UK branches would be "largely unaffected" by the changes, the company added.

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

Joe Garner, head of HSBC's UK Bank, added: "We have tried to keep the number of people who will be leaving the bank to a minimum."

The changes are part of plans by global chief executive Stuart Gulliver to cut 30,000 jobs across HSBC's worldwide operations by the end of 2013, and to streamline the bank for changes in UK regulation.

Banks across the world are shedding thousands of staff as they try to improve profitability and cope with tougher global regulations.

In the UK, banks have been told they must separate their retail banking operations, and also need to shake-up how they sell products under a Retail Distribution Review.

Mr Gulliver, who received a pay package of £7.2m last year, wants to reduce annual costs by about £2.2bn and is retreating from countries and areas where the bank lacks scale.

Unite national officer for financial services, David Fleming, pledged to "fiercely" campaign against the latest job losses.

He said: "Bank staff deserve so much more than this awful treatment by HSBC or any other employer.

"How can this bank consider staff cuts when it was the workforce that delivered it a profit of £13.8bn last year?

"The hypocrisy of CEO Stuart Gulliver taking home £8m [sic], while talking up job losses in order to save money, will not be lost on the workforce."

HSBC cut almost 7,000 jobs globally last year, leaving it with about 288,000 employees at the end of December.

It cut jobs in Hong Kong, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Mexico and some head office functions in the first wave of the revamp last year.

Britain is in the second wave of countries affected.

It could cut hundreds of staff in India soon, according to local media reports.