British multinational investment bank, HSBC is planning to cut nearly 35,000 jobs, a decision that was made at the beginning of February this year.
However, due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the lender-placed the layoff plan on hold. In the wake of the ongoing challenging situations pertaining to business operations made worst due to declining profit, the bank stated that it now have to think of cutting down its cost. The lender has also frozen its hiring.
Noel Quinn, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, sent a communique to his 235,000 employees writing, “We could not pause the job losses indefinitely—it was always a question of ‘not if, but when.’”
Quinn further stated, “You will have seen that our profits fell in the first quarter, and virtually all economic forecasts point to challenging times ahead.”
Also Read: HSBC cuts off 200 jobs in Pune, Bangalore
The CEO added that the layoffs, which were first planned for February, are “even more necessary today.” “Since February, we have pressed forward with some aspects of our transformation program, but we now need to look to the long term and move ahead with others, including reducing our costs,” said Quinn.
The bank faced major blows lately as its pre-tax profit dropped 48 percent to $3.2 Billion in the first quarter and it had to fix billions of dollars for potential losses that may arise due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The layoff move is a part of a restructuring programme that aims to attain $4.5 Billion of cost cuts by 2022.
