Bank giant set to axe further 2,000 jobs in Britain

The axe is expected to fall on nearly four per cent of the bank’s 52,000-strong UK workforce in a drive to slash costs and help the business react to the tougher climate in the banking industry, including plans for more regulation. The cuts are part of plans announced by chief executive Stuart Gulliver last year to slash 30,000 jobs, or 10 per cent of the bank’s global workforce, by 2013.

The expected announcement would mark the first time the bank has said how the drive will affect its UK business, where it has some 1,290 branches. Yesterday, a spokesman for HSBC said he could not say whether there might be any job losses in the Yorkshire region. HSBC’s internet and phone bank First Direct is based in Leeds. Including its branch network, HSBC currently employs around 4,000 people in Yorkshire.

HSBC cut 5,000 jobs globally last year, including 700 in the UK. But Mr Gulliver announced in August that the cuts would go deeper than previously announced, bringing the total to 30,000. The drive is thought to have saved the bank £2.1bn last year.

However, at the same time the bank is creating jobs as it expands in other areas such as Asia and Latin America. It already makes 90 per cent of its money outside the UK and there are fears it may move its headquarters from London to Asia.

Banks are battling reduced levels of activity as economies around the world struggle to recover from the financial crisis. And in the UK banks face tougher regulations after the Government said it would back the Independent Commission on Banking’s plans to force banks to separate their retail and investment arms.

Mr Gulliver was recently reported as saying that financial regulations introduced after the banking crisis had wiped some £18bn from its market value. Other banks to have announced redundancies in recent months include taxpayer-backed Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.