HSBC Holdings PLC is resuming its plan to cut 35,000 jobs that was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported, citing a memo.
The bank is to maintain a freeze on almost all external recruitment, HSBC chief executive officer Noel Quinn said in the memo, which was sent to the bank’s 235,000 staff worldwide, Reuters reported.
The bank has to resume the plan as its profits fall and global economic forecasts point to a challenging time ahead, Quinn wrote.
Photo: Reuters
“We could not pause the job losses indefinitely — it was always a question of ‘not if, but when,’” Quinn wrote.
Meanwhile, a top executive sought to reassure clients and staff after the bank’s controversial support of China’s proposed national security legislation in Hong Kong, saying that the escalating political rhetoric would not diminish the appeal of the two markets.
The bank’s clients have raised the topic of Hong Kong in nearly every discussion, HSBC cohead of global banking and markets Greg Guyett wrote in an internal memo to colleagues, adding that he has addressed those concerns by pointing to HSBC’s role as a “bridge” between Asian and Western economies.
“China and the West will continue to have deep economic and trade relationships — and Hong Kong will remain an important conduit given its robust markets and business framework,” Guyett wrote in the memo seen by Bloomberg News.
He also reiterated HSBC’s stance on Beijing’s proposed national security legislation, which the bank supported earlier this month.
“We respect and support laws and regulations that will enable Hong Kong to recover and rebuild the economy and, at the same time, maintain the principle of one country, two systems,” he wrote.
The memo comes after HSBC’s stance prompted anger among British and US lawmakers.
In London, senior figures from the opposition Labour Party said the positions of HSBC and Asia-focused rival Standard Chartered PLC were “completely at odds with the values framework in which financial institutions should be operating.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized “corporate kowtows” in response to China’s proposals.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day