HSBC says 1,200 workers face axe

HSBC recently approved a £12.5bn share sale. Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, has said up to 1,200 of its staff in the UK could face redundancy. The bank said the individuals who could be affected by job losses are being briefed on Wednesday. HSBC has not received taxpayer support amid the financial crisis, but just approved a £12.5bn ($18.3bn) rights issue to strengthen its finances. At least a third of the staff cuts will come from back office operations such as call centres, a spokesman said.

'Difficult decisions'

An operation centre in Leamington Spa, near Warwick, will lose 280 positions and a call centre in Newport, Wales, will be shut down, and about 150 jobs will be lost in London, HSBC spokesman Tim Pie said. Shares rose 1.4% to 396.75 pence. HSBC cut about 500 jobs from its London head office in December. "This is a kick in the teeth of the bank's employees Derek Simpson, Unite
"The operating environment for banks in the UK is extremely challenging and will remain so for some time," HSBC UK managing director Paul Thurston said in the statement.

"There are difficult decisions that have to be made as we adapt to a new environment," Mr Thurston said. Its rights issue, backed by shareholders last week, will be the biggest in UK corporate history. Job cuts "Unite can see no justification for the efficient and dedicated staff in the UK to lose their jobs and all basic and standard current accounts to be serviced from India," said Derek Simpson, the joint general secretary of the Unite union. "This is a kick in the teeth of the bank's employees." Financial firms have been cutting workers and trying to raise money as they struggle to cope with the worst crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

BBC News is tracking where jobs have been created and lost around the UK BBC UK jobs tracker . The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is one of several banks that have been bailed out by the UK government in exchange for stakes, has said it will cut 2,700 jobs in the UK. In January, Barclays cut 4,200 jobs from its UK banking business, with half coming from back office operations and the other half coming from its fund management, private banking and investment banking units.
Insurers Royal Sun Alliance, Legal & General and Standard Life have all said they will cut jobs.

Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7962833.stm