HSBC has cut roughly 10 percent of its US-based debt capital markets team, laying off at least six employees in New York as the bank intensifies a sweeping global restructuring designed to save US$1.5 billion annually by 2026. The job reductions, reported by Bloomberg, affected staff across multiple seniority levels, including a managing director, directors, associates and an analyst.
The cuts form part of a broader overhaul launched in October 2024 after Georges Elhedery formally succeeded Noel Quinn as group chief executive. The strategy aims to simplify the bank’s structure, concentrate resources on key markets such as the UK and Hong Kong, and prioritise corporate, institutional, wealth and premier banking operations.
Earlier announcements outlined plans to reduce annual costs by US$1.5 billion by the end of 2026, including an 8 percent cut in personnel expenses. As part of that drive, HSBC has already sold its private banking business in Germany and an insurance unit in France, while exiting certain investment banking activities in Europe and the United States.
The bank has also scaled back its geographic footprint, withdrawing from retail banking in Sri Lanka and Malta during the third quarter of last year. In Asia, it has initiated a strategic review of its insurance business in Singapore, a move analysts say could lead to a sale as HSBC reallocates capital toward faster-growing insurance markets in Hong Kong and China.
The restructuring push comes shortly after HSBC completed the buyout of the remaining 37 percent stake in Hang Seng Bank that it did not already own, a privatisation valued at HK$106.6 billion (US$13.6 billion). The acquisition underscores the bank’s renewed emphasis on Asia as a central pillar of its long-term growth strategy.
HSBC is scheduled to report its full-year 2025 financial results next week, following a weaker-than-expected third quarter in which net profit fell 25 percent to US$4.58 billion. Earnings were weighed down by lower interest rates, a downturn in property markets and a one-off provision, missing analysts’ consensus estimates.
Despite the job cuts and retrenchment in certain regions, HSBC has remained among the top 10 underwriters of US corporate debt over the past three years, highlighting the bank’s continued presence in key global capital markets even as it reshapes its international footprint.
