Banking giant HSBC to eliminate 1,700 UK positions

Banking giant HSBC has announced plans to axe 1,726 jobs in the UK and comes just 24 hours after Royal Bank of Scotland said it was axing 3,700 branch jobs.

HSBC UK chief executive, Paul Thurston, said: “Decisions that affect our people are always difficult, but this restructure is an essential part of the streamlining of our business and the migration of activities into centres of excellence around the country.”

According to the bank, the majority of the job cuts will take place in its credit card and collections operation, which will be reduced from nine regional offices including Southampton, Southend, Leicester and Sheffield, to two sites in Birmingham.

However, the news was met with criticism from the Unite union after Rob MacGregor described the move as a “fundamental mistake”.

“The union does not believe this will do anything to improve the company’s future performance,” said Mr MacGregor.

A spokesperson for the bank told the BBC that the job cuts will be made in support services rather than branches.

The bank, which is Europe’s largest, employs more than 300,000 globally and was one of the few UK banks not to receive a bailout from the UK Government. However, it did embark on a £12.5 billion rights issue earlier this year - the largest ever held in Britain.

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