The banking system must be doing great... just days after JPMorgan announced mass layoffs, SkyNews reports that HSBC is preparing to announce a revised headcount target, which insiders said that it was likely to be between 10,000 and 20,000 job cuts.
HSBC will next week set out plans to cut thousands more jobs across its global workforce as it tries to reassure shareholders that its focus on costs remains undiminished after a series of reputational crises.
Sky News understands that Stuart Gulliver, HSBC's chief executive, will set out a revised target for headcount reductions that will be implemented by the end of 2017 at an investor day next week.
The precise job cuts number that will be outlined by Mr Gulliver on June 9 was unclear on Monday, although insiders said that it was likely to be between 10,000 and 20,000.
One source said the numbers were still being worked on and had yet to be finalised.
Europe’s biggest lender employed 258,000 people at the end of last year, but it has already abandoned a target set two years ago to reduce its employee base to between 240,000 and 250,000 by 2016 because of the fast-changing nature of bank regulation.
It is understood that the headcount reductions figure announced next week will exclude the potential impact of the sale of HSBC's operations in Brazil and Turkey, where the bank does not disclose how many people work for it.
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As we noted previously, of JPMorgan
The latest job cuts show that despite some resiliency in certain
business lines, including merger advisory and asset management...
Banks have been
scrambling to cut costs enough to counteract increased regulatory and
legal expenses in recent years while revenue growth has been hurt by low
interest rates.
“It’s cheaper for us and good for clients,” Mr. Dimon noted.
Maybe so, but we’ll tell you who it’s most certainly not good for:
the people who are about to be fired. To those folks we say simply that
you can blame ZIRP, a flagging US economy which ZIRP has failed to prop
up, and of course, the machines.
But at least the stock price is up... so that's nice!