(AFP Photo)
By Hossam Mounir
HSBC announced Tuesday a new strategy to improve its performance and decrease expenditure, including the dismissing thousands of its employees in the UK and worldwide.
According to a bank statement, 8,000 employees out of 48,000 employees who work in the bank’s UK branches will be affected. A further 20,000 employees worldwide will also be threatened.
Daily News Egypt contacted HSBC’s management in Egypt regarding the situation of its employees in Egypt and whether the labour liquidation process, initiated among its branches in 70 countries, will include those employees or not. The bank’s management in Egypt, however, declined to comment.
HSBC in Egypt was established in 1982 as the Hong Kong Egyptian Bank. In 2001, HSBC International Group increased its shares in Hong Kong Egyptian Bank’s capital from 40% to 94.5%, to change its name to HSBC Egypt. The bank has over 70 branches and banking units across Egypt.
According to a statement released by HSBC, it will sell its units in Turkey as well as in Brazil and will move its activities to Asia. It also targets to decrease its manpower by 10%. The bank’s strategy includes reducing annual expenses by $4.5bn-$5bn by 2017.
It also stated that it will reduce its banking investments to lower expenses and improve its stagnant performance.
Stuart Gulliver, Group Chief Executive of HSBC since 2011, will provide more details about his second main plan for the bank’s strategy during a meeting to be held with investors and analysts.
