HSBC Holdings, Europe’s largest bank, will eliminate about 330 UK jobs, mainly in commercial lending, as it merges nine regional offices into six, the lender said Monday.
The cuts are in addition to 30,000 announced in August.
Workers affected have been told of the plans and the bank will attempt to find new jobs for employees, said James Thorpe, an HSBC spokesman. The cuts may affect 551 people in total, the Unite labor union said in a statement.
The cuts come after the bank announced plans in August to eliminate about 10 percent of jobs by the end of 2013 to curtail salary costs, HSBC said. Earlier today, the UK’s Financial Services Authority said HSBC must pay £39.8m ($62.2m), including a record fine, for mis-selling investment products to elderly customers.
“On the day when HSBC has been fined £10.5m for giving inappropriate advice to elderly customers, it is bizarre that it would choose to make staffing cuts,” David Fleming, Unite national officer, said in an emailed statement today. “Instead the bank should be working to improve the quality of its service.”
In the retail-banking business, 20 jobs will be cut as a branch is closed in Belfast, and 58 jobs will be lost in roles including mail-room services, scanning and human resources, the bank said today.
HSBC aims to reduce as much as $3.5bn of expenses over the next two years as it tackles wage inflation in faster- growing economies and prepares for stricter capital rules, the bank said in May.
The bank received a record penalty in the U.K. over sales of financial products, the FSA said in a statement today. The lender estimated it would have to pay about £29.3m to compensate customers, the FSA said.
HSBC’s NHFA unit advised 2,485 customers with an average age of 83 to invest in asset-backed products to fund their long- term care. The investments typically were recommended for a minimum five-year period, which in some cases was longer than the customers’ life expectancies, causing them to make withdrawals sooner than recommended, the regulator said.
HSBC Bank chief executive officer Brian Robertson said in a statement he is “profoundly sorry” that the NHFA “failed to give suitable financial advice to some of their customers.”
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