Latest news: Cuts to hit bankers

HSBC confirms it will sacrifice 2,200 UK jobs in an attempt to reduce costs. 27/04/2012

The move comes as part of worldwide job cuts by the banking giant which should see the company save $3.5billion by 2013.

The news that around 4% of HSBC’s 50,000 strong staff are to be made redundant came just days after the British economy sunk back into recession. Yet the bank itself remains highly profitable.

David Fleming, national officer at the worker’s union Unite, said, ‘There is no justification for this awful treatment of staff. How can this bank consider staff cuts when it was the workforce that delivered it a profit of £13.8billion?

‘The hypocrisy of [HSBC’s] CEO Stuart Gulliver taking home £8million, while claiming the bank must cut thousands of staff in order to save money, will not be lost on the workforce.’

HSBC has claimed that senior and middle management employees will be the worst affected. The slashes will also consist of hundreds of in-branch investment salesmen.