HSBC IT staff at risk as bank announces 30,000 job cuts
Back office and support functions to be hardest hit
By Anh Nguyen | Computerworld UK | Published 11:31, 01 August 11
HSBC has announced it will cut 30,000 jobs over the next three years, with IT staff at risk as the bank targets back office functions.
The bank revealed in its interim financial results today that it has already cut 5,000 staff in the UK, US, France, Latin America and the Middle East, since the start of 2011. Headcount at the global company stood at 295,995 as of 30 June, with 76,879 of these in Europe.
IT and back office jobs are likely to be affected by the restructuring plans, as Stuart Gulliver, HSBC’s group chief executive said in the report: “We launched a programme to reduce the costs of our head office and global support functions.”
According to Bloomberg, he also told journalists: “What we’re talking about is removing a lot of back, functional head office support staff where we believe we have created an unnecessary bureaucracy in this firm over a number of years.”
HSBC is targeting cost savings of US$2.5 billion to $3.5 billion (£1.5 billion to £2.1 billion) by 2013.
This is despite reporting a three percent increase in its pre-tax profit for the period, of $11.5 billion (£6.98 billion).
HSBC revealed that it was cutting 700 UK jobs, including IT, at the end of June, the same day Lloyds Banking Group revealed plans to slash 15,000 roles.
