September 26, 2008

HSBC and Bradford & Bingley cut back office jobs

Processing staff hit again by credit crunch

By Leo King

HSBC and Bradford & Bingley are the latest firms to cut back office staff as the tough economic conditions hurt the financial markets.

Some 500 UK jobs will go at HSBC’s investment banking division, and a large proportion of the cuts are thought to be back office and processing work as well as IT functions. HSBC is making another 600 staff redundant in investment banking offices in other countries.

The HSBC cuts affect permanent and contract staff.

Three hundred back office jobs will go from Bradford & Bingley over the next few months when the mortgage lender closes a key processing centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. B&B said that with this move, as well as 70 sales staff cuts, it would save £15 million per year.

A spokesperson at B&B said those affected at the mortgage centre include staff in processing and other functions, a contact centre and underwriting. The company’s larger operations centre in Bingley will take over all the processing from the first quarter of next year, but no staff will be hired.

B&B is now also undertaking a review of its head office support functions, after cutting the number of mortgage advisers in its branches. No further details were given.

Earlier this week, back office staff in the European investment and equity units of Lehman Brothers breathed a sigh of relief as Japanese bank Nomura bought those operations and said it would secure the jobs of "most" of the staff. But staff in the trading and other operations are still uncertain of their future.

Meanwhile, the Lloyds TSB Union reacted angrily to rumours that the bank would make further job cuts with the takeover of HBOS. It also called for the "repatriation" of the 3,000 jobs at Lloyds TSB that were separately offshored over the last few years.

Newsletters

Sign up to our Weekly Round-Up for the past week’s not-to-be-missed news analysis and insight delivered straight to your inbox.