Bank axes 80 city call centre jobs

BANKING giant HSBC has slashed 80 jobs at its Edinburgh call centre.

The cuts at the South Gyle Business Park come amongst 2217 workers leaving across its UK operations.

Branch customer-facing staff are likely to be least hit, the bank said, while head office and back office employees will suffer the burden.

HSBC only has about a dozen branches in Scotland. The bank also has another call centre in Hamilton, where 40 people will lose their jobs.

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

Joe Garner, head of HSBC’s UK Bank, said: “I feel the deepest sympathy for those colleagues who are affected by these changes and would like to stress that we will be doing everything we possibly can to support them.”