HSBC is looking to grow the number of employees it has in the Asia region. (Kwik News)
British banking giant HSBC will slash 30,000 jobs by 2013 and sell half of its US branches. The company said it was going to focus on emerging markets. The company suffered billions in losses during the financial crisis of 2008.
The AP reported:
British banking company HSBC said Monday it will cut 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 and sell almost half its bank branches in the U.S., part of a new strategy to cut back on retail operations in some parts of the world and focus instead on fast-growing emerging markets.
The bank, which reported a 3 percent increase in pretax profits to $11.5 billion in the six months to June, has already cut 5,000 jobs this year.
Bank spokesman Patrick Humphris said another 25,000 will be slashed by 2013. HSBC currently employs about 296,000 people worldwide.
Humphris declined to give details of where the job cuts would be but said the group is still hiring in emerging economies such as Brazil and Mexico.
As part of its restructuring, HSBC will sell 195 retail banking branches in the United States to First Niagara Bank for about $1 billion. Most of the branches to be sold are in upstate New York, while six are in Connecticut. Four more are in northern Westchester County, and two in Putnam County.
The bank is still dealing with the legacy of bad loans in the U.S. from the 2003 acquisition of consumer lender Household International Inc. The acquisition made HSBC the biggest subprime lender in the United States at the time, which resulted in billions of losses to HSBC leading up to the financial crisis of 2008.
