HSBC slashed 1,100 jobs in its investment banking division in response to the slump in financial markets. Thursday’s cuts represent about 4% of HSBC’s total employees in its global banking and markets division. About 500 staff, including both front and back office and permanent and temporary workers, were based in London, with the majority of the remainder in Europe and the US. The cuts reflect HSBC’s gloomy prognosis for the world’s financial markets in 2009 but also underscore the bank’s ambitions to focus its investment banking operations on emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, where executives believe it has a competitive advantage and strong growth prospects. Since the credit crisis started, HSBC has regularly been rumoured as a possible buyer for troubled rivals including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and – most recently – Morgan Stanley. But executives have consistently maintained that HSBC has no interest in making acquisitions in the investment banking business.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 5:28 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with hsbc. Edit this entry.