HSBC axes 14,000 jobs

HSBC is to lay off up to 14,000 global staff in a cost-cutting move likely to include redundancies among the bank's back-office IT employees.

HSBC outlined the plan in its three-year strategy. The bank said it aims to save £2bn in annual costs.

A spokeswoman for HSBC said the redundancies would affect staff across all areas of the business, but was unable to give details about the specific roles to be axed.

The bank has cut $4bn of costs since 2011, with $600m of that coming from streamlining IT.

However, it is thought that this round of job cuts will affect the IT department less than in previous redundancy rounds.

The move could see total headcount reduced to 240,000 by 2016, bringing the total of number of redundancies to 55,000 since 2010.

Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, said the bank will continue to exert tight cost discipline while streamlining processes and procedures. 

Gulliver said: “HSBC has a distinctive position in the new environment for the banking industry. Taken together, we are confident that these measures will deliver consistent and superior financial results and move us closer to achieving our ambition of being the world’s leading international bank.”