LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - HSBC Holdings is cutting senior investment-banking positions as part of the lender's ongoing plan to reduce costs across the company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The cuts reflect a gradual trimming of jobs, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the move hasn't been announced publicly. Reuters earlier on Tuesday reported the reductions would affect dozens of employees.

A year ago, chief executive officer Stuart Gulliver outlined a three-year plan to pare back HSBC's global network by shutting money-losing businesses and eliminating as many as 25,000 jobs. Gulliver's cost cuts helped the bank beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter profit, when the CEO said he was confident of hitting expense targets by the end of 2017.

First-quarter profit fell 15 per cent at the investment bank, which is run by Samir Assaf. In February, Mr Assaf hired Matthew Westerman, the former chairman of investment banking in Europe at Goldman Sachs Group, to be HSBC's co-head of global banking.

HSBC said in February that it would fold its capital-financing arm into the investment bank, and some of the job cuts are a result of duplication as the businesses are combined, the person said.