HSBC board seeking deeper cuts amid pandemic: Report
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A Financial Times report says the coronavirus pandemic has prompted HSBC's board to press for a possible sale of the bank's retail network in France, its US business, and operations in smaller, non-strategic countries.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON • The coronavirus pandemic has prompted HSBC Holdings' board to order a review of the bank's recent reorganisation, according to the Financial Times.
The health crisis requires more drastic measures than those announced three months ago, in what was HSBC's biggest overhaul in its 155-year history, the newspaper said in its Tuesday edition, citing senior people at the London-based bank whom it did not identify.
HSBC in February announced plans to cut 35,000 jobs, US$4.5 billion (S$6.4 billion) in costs and US$100 billion of risk-weighted assets by reducing its US and European businesses and investment bank, though the pandemic has since prompted management to pause layoffs.
The board is now pressing executives to restart the overhaul and consider even more dramatic changes, the newspaper said. They include further cuts or a possible sale of its United States business as well as its retail network in France and operations in smaller, non-strategic countries. A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment on the report.
Separately, HSBC is taking full control of its German business as Europe's largest lender restructures its global operations. It will acquire an 18.66 per cent stake in HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt from Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, a regional lender in the south of Germany, according to statements by the banks on Monday. They did not disclose a price.
Net profit in HSBC's German unit fell almost 17 per cent last year to €98 million (S$152.3 million) after the bank recorded a rise in loan impairments.
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