HSBC set to cut 10,000 jobs, says report
28 Jul 2011
HSBC Plc, the London-based banking giant, is on the verge of sacking 10,000 employees as part of its recently announced cost-cutting drive, says a Sky News report widely quoted in the media.
The broadcaster, unwittingly in the media eye over a failed takeover bid by Rupert Murdoch's tainted News Corp, said on Wednesday that senior executives at HSBC "are close to finalising costs cuts that will result in thousands of jobs being axed across the bank's sprawling global empire".
A bank spokeswoman in Hong Kong today declined comment on the report, Reuters reported.
The job cuts would come from trimming the company's head office functions and closing retail banking operations "no longer deemed to be core to the bank's future", the Sky report said.
In May, HSBC said it would slash costs by up to $3.5 billion by 2013, with its new chief executive Stuart Gulliver saying the savings would be ploughed back into fast-growing markets around the world, especially in Asia.
The lender has already said it would be hiring at least 2,000 extra people in mainland China and Singapore over the next five years, as it seeks to tap the fast-growing Asia Pacific market.
