Banking giant HSBC , which employs more than 4,000 staff in Scotland, is thought to be set to announce plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.
Reports suggest the group is looking to cut costs amid challenges including a slowing Chinese economy and global trade tariff wars.
The company employs 237,000 staff globally and the cuts would amount to 4% of its workforce. HSBC has not commented on the speculation. In August the bank announced 4,700 redundancies and the latest job cuts could be announced when HSBC reports third-quarter results at the end of this month.
According to the Financial Times, any new cuts would come on top of those already announced. One source told the newspaper: “There’s some very hard modelling going on. We are asking why we have so many people in Europe when we’ve got double-digit returns in parts of Asia.”
Jasper Lawler of London Capital Group said the rumoured cuts “is HSBC acknowledging the problems it faces from a slowing economy in China, unrest in Hong Kong and lower interest rates across the US and Europe”.
In June 2017, HSBC unveiled plans to create 500 jobs in a significant expansion of its operations in Scotland including the addition of roles at its global risk function established in Edinburgh in 2015 and at its customer contact centre in Hamilton.
