HSBC to cut 130 jobs in Scottish call centres

BANKING giant HSBC yesterday confirmed it was cutting 130 jobs in Scotland as part of a sweeping move to slash costs and “eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy”.

The bank will axe some 2,200 jobs in the UK as it targets senior and middle management. The Scottish posts will go from its call centres in Edinburgh and Hamilton.

HSBC said only a small proportion of customer-facing staff would be impacted by the decision. The bank’s 1,250 branches will emerge relatively unscathed from the latest round of cuts.

The bank blamed the job cuts on changes to regulation in the UK, such as the retail distribution review (RDR), and growing capital requirements. It is in the midst of a group-wide restructuring programme to cut layers of management and streamline its IT requirements, and the losses are part of plans announced last year to slash 30,000 jobs, or 10 per cent of the bank’s global workforce, by 2013.

It said around a quarter of staff changes are in anticipation of the likely impact on business levels caused by the RDR, which will mean UK banks can no longer offer financial advice for free.

Brian Robertson, the boss of HSBC Bank, said: “We have taken the difficult decision to restructure HSBC in the UK in order to reduce layers of management and bureaucracy.”

The bank, which employs 52,000 in the UK, said it would reduce that number by 3,167 but expected just under 1,000 to find positions elsewhere in the company.

DOMINIC JEFF