HSBC to Cut 30,000 Finance Positions

August 2, 2011 – British banking giant HSBC will cut 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 — 10 percent of its global workforce — and sell almost half its bank branches in the U.S., part of a new strategy to cut back on retail operations and focus instead on fast-growing emerging markets. The bank, which reported a three percent increase in pretax profits to $11.5 billion in the six months to June, currently employs nearly 300,000 people worldwide and, according to executive recruiters familiar with the company’s hiring practices, is expected to continue recruiting talent in emerging economies such as Brazil and Mexico. The bank is still dealing with the legacy of bad loans in the U.S. from the 2003 acquisition of consumer lender Household International Inc. The acquisition made HSBC the biggest subprime lender in the U.S. at the time, which resulted in billions of losses to HSBC leading up to the financial crisis of 2008.