HSBC’s interim chief executive Noel Quinn has said that the bank will offload roughly 35,000 jobs over the next three years after its 2019 profits suffered a sharp decline.
2019 profits were recorded at $13.35 billion [£10.3 billion] before tax, a fall of 33 per cent.
The decline is largely put down to $7.3 billion in write-offs that were linked to its commercial banking and investment businesses in Europe, alongside slow economic growth in its major markets.
The banking giant is now looking to offload $4.5 billion [£3.5 billion] worth of costs and reduce its assets by over $100 billion by 2022.
Quinn said that the restructure will see the bank’s total number of employees trimmed back from 235,000 to 200,000, jettisoning around 15 per cent of its workforce.
Speaking to Reuters, Quinn said: “Our headcount is likely to go from 235,000 to closer to 200,000 over the next three years”.
Quinn has been in post as interim chief executive since last August, with his successor set to be appointed in the next six to 12 months.
HSBC employs over 40,000 people in the UK, with cutbacks likely to affect its European and US-based investment banking arms.
As well as low global interest rates and uncertainty surrounding the UK's departure from the EU weighing down on the business, HSBC is yet to fully determine the impact of the recent coronavirus outbreak on its thriving Asian business.
The bank's operations in Asia generate roughly half of its revenue and around 90 per cent of its profits.
