HSBC seeks to lay off 200 operating directors worldwide

HSBC will lay off up to 15% of its 2,000 senior operations managers around the world, in a bid to streamline its management ranks and reduce costsaccording to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

The global job cuts at the London-based bank will occur across multiple business units and geographic locations and will mean the loss of at least 200 positions, most with the title of Chief Operating Officer (COO), they said. the sources.

HSBC, which used to position itself as the world’s home bank, employs many COOs because business lines and countries have their own separate COOs, the sources said.

The bank declined to comment.

The lender has been scaling back its extensive global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries to try to improve shareholder returns.

The latest cuts are already underway, one of the sources said.

Chief Executive Noel Quinn said Thursday that HSBC has identified $1.7 billion of additional cost cuts it will make next year as it struggles to meet an overall target of no more than 2% rise in costs despite the inflationary pressures.

The initiative, whose code name is Banyan Projectfollows HSBC’s latest major layoff plan in 2020, which aimed to cut up to 35,000 jobs globally at all levels of the workforce.

Three different sources confirmed the layoffs were underway, as HSBC joins a chorus of other banks cutting staff as the gloomy global economic outlook weighs on corporate, consumer and investment banking revenues.

All sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.