35,000 jobs to be lost as HSBC presses on with cuts

HSBC, which has big new offices in Sheffield, made the announcement to its 235,000 staff around the globe in a memo seen by the BBC and has since been confirmed by the bank.

The plan had originally been announced in February however the cuts were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Interim chief executive Noel Quinn said the workforce will reduce from 235,000 to 200,000 over the next three years – a reduction of almost 15 per cent.

The banking giant held fire on making the cuts in April as it claimed it did not want to leave staff without jobs and unable to find work during the lockdown.

The move comes as part of a significant restructuring aimed as making $4.5bn (£3.6bn) of cost cuts by 2022.

HSBC has said that internal jobs would be sought for those who lost their jobs, however redundancies are likely.

The bank has a large presence in Sheffield and opened new £90 million offices on The Moor last summer.

The company warned that the outbreak of coronavirus had caused ‘significant disruption’ for its business, especially in mainland China and Hong Kong.

Its headquarters are in London but almost half its revenue and nearly 90 per cent of profit came from Asia in 2018.