LONDON: HSBC will cut its global workforce by up to 50,000 as it exits Brazil and Turkey and mulls relocating headquarters back to Asia from London, the banking giant said Tuesday.

Europe’s biggest bank aims to save up to $5 billion (4.4bn euros) in annual costs within two and a half years as it seeks to boost profits and move past recent scandals that have scarred the British lender, including the rigging of forex markets.

HSBC said it wants to focus more on Asia, particularly in the Pearl River Delta region in southern China, amid an ongoing review of its London headquarters that will completed this year.

“We have reshaped HSBC, but it is clear it is insufficient,” said chief executive Stuart Gulliver, who has implemented swingeing cutbacks since becoming the bank’s head in 2011.

Philip Benton, an analyst at research group Euromonitor, said the bank was “redeploying their resources to where the most profit and the most revenue they can generate for the bank”.

HEADCOUNT SLASHED: HSBC said there would be a 10-per cent reduction in jobs with the shedding of between 22,000 and 25,000 positions worldwide.

A further 25,000 jobs would be lost with the sale of operations in Turkey and Brazil. However some or all of these staff could be kept on by potential buyers.

HSBC said the latest job losses would include between 7,000 and 8,000 positions in Britain — where its retail bank is being relocated from London to Birmingham, central England, by 2019.

It also aims to trim its worldwide network of branches by 12pc, with Britain being one of seven major regions to be impacted.

HSBC has been hit by Britain’s banking levy on the financial sector — which last year cost it $1.1bn — as well as new industry rules to “ring fence” British banks’ retail operations to protect them from riskier investment divisions.

The bank aims to save $4.5-$5bn in annual costs by late 2017.

However, the initial overall cost of the restructuring is estimated at $4.0-4.5bn.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2015

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