HSBC to cut 700 jobs but increase mortgage advisers

30 June 2011 | By Natalie Thomas

The lender says it is shedding the jobs ahead of the Retail Distribution Review.

The move will see around 460 staff impacted in the financial advice team in the retail banking and wealth management division.  

Other areas impacted include a reduction of 140 roles in the bank’s service delivery area and around a further 100 roles across the IT operations and head office functions such as HR, finance and compliance.

But in a statement today, it says: “Wealth management is a cornerstone to HSBC’s business strategy and as part of today’s announcement more than 50 additional senior financial planning adviser roles are being created.  

“Furthermore, an additional 50 mortgage adviser roles are also being created, reflecting the rapid growth in mortgage lending at the bank over the past four years where our mortgage market share has risen from around 3% share in 2007, to around 10% today.”

Joe Garner, Head of HSBC in the UK, says: “These decisions have only been made after very careful thought and consideration for our people, the long term business needs and economic environment.  The Banking sector in the UK is going through fundamental change and I firmly believe that these steps are necessary if we are to continue to keep HSBC on a firm and sustainable footing, not just for today, but also fit for the future.

“We will work extremely closely with all those colleagues affected by today’s announcement so that we can try to find them alternative roles thereby minimising the number of people who actually leave the HSBC Group.”

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