HSBC employees are heading for a strategy review which could involve swathes of job cuts.
The lender is reportedly set to reveal a shake-up later this month, with changes to HSBC's struggling French unit and its business on the west coast of America expected.
Around 10,000 jobs are thought to be on the line under the shake-up that will affect workers worldwide.
It comes as a survey of the bank's 237,000 staff, seen by Bloomberg, showed just 38% of employees in Europe, excluding the UK, felt confident about its future under interim boss Noel Quinn.
HSBC first revealed a wave of job cuts a year ago, as part of plans to move workers from London to France under restructuring plans.
At the time, many of the vacant positions at the GCB 4 level – commonly known as vice president roles in other banks – were taken down from its internal careers board as part of a potential hiring freeze.
A source said: "A hiring freeze and the support sessions are the pieces of the jigsaw the bank always puts in place before announcing a major round of job cuts. It's what’s happened in the past, and it appears to be happening again. Within the building it is thought that the job cuts will be across the business."
It is understood that the role of the Regulatory Compliance team is being taken over by the Financial Crime Compliance department, and at least some of the roles moved to Paris.
In 2018, HSBC announced it may move up to 1,000 jobs from its UK head office in Canary Wharf, London, to Paris over concerns around Brexit, but in April this year said it had put those plans on hold, with less than 100 jobs having moved so far.
A spokeswoman for HSBC said: "Business and function lines constantly re-evaluate their needs to ensure they have the right roles in the right locations to deliver for our customers and stakeholders globally."
