HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, may cut about 1,000 jobs in the UK, a person familiar with the situation said.
The jobs will be eliminated in processing and operations, and some administration sites may be closed, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential.
London-based HSBC employs about 58,000 people in the UK and 330,000 worldwide.
TOUGH YEAR
“HSBC, like all banks, must be thinking it’s going to be a tough year and they are looking to make savings,” said Leigh Goodwin, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Ltd in London who has an “underperform” rating on the stock.
“The bank has always been cost conscious,” the analyst said yesterday.
HSBC is raising £12.5 billion (US$18.4 billion) in the UK’s biggest rights offering to boost its capital and fund expansion in emerging markets.
ELIMINATIONS
The company eliminated about 500 jobs in the UK in November and 1,100 positions at its global banking and markets unit in September.
Barclays Plc, the UK’s third-largest bank, has shed more than 4,500 jobs this year.
An HSBC spokesman declined to comment, saying the bank would never discuss job cuts without first discussing the matter with employees.
STOCKS
The stock fell 3.3 percent to HK$44.3 as of 12:04pm yesterday in Hong Kong, after dropping as much as 5 percent.
The shares have lost 35 percent of their value this year, compared with a 9.2 percent drop in the MSCI AC Asia Financials Index.
NO INJECTION
HSBC, unlike rivals Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, hasn’t needed a capital injection from the government and its share offering is fully underwritten.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique