According to Apple Daily, HSBC has a new round of layoffs in Hong Kong, a rare post-tsunami regulatory environment, the compliance department responsible for gate-keeping when disaster, a single EIR (External Investigative Reporting) department will be cut by 50% to 60% of the staff, a conservative estimate of at least more than 100 people affected. And half of the compliance department functions will be moved to Guangzhou to reduce costs.
According to unnamed sources, the bank held a staff meeting via video this morning, with more than 600 employees, mainly in the compliance department, participating. At the meeting, the management mentioned that in order to reduce costs and maintain sustainable compliance costs, layoffs will be launched, the EIR department alone will be cut by 50% to 60% of the staff, the total number of people involved in this round is unknown, but the Hong Kong and Singapore compliance department will be the hardest hit.
The so-called compliance (Compliance) refers to the risk control measures taken by employees to ensure that their business practices comply with local and international laws and regulations to reduce the chances of errors and avoid direct enforcement and fines by regulators. The source, who was present at the staff meeting, said the bank has not yet announced the list and details of layoffs, nor has it announced guidelines for layoffs, but only told colleagues to “be patient” and that compensation would be made in accordance with established procedures. As to whether there will be internal transfer possibilities, the management explained that there are internal vacancies and encouraged colleagues to apply themselves, but also said that it may not be sufficient to absorb all the laid-off employees.
EIR belongs to the Financial Crime Threat Mitigation Department (Financial Crime Threat Mitigation) under the special responsibility of anti-money laundering investigation. He said that three years ago the size of the staff of 500 people, has now been further reduced to the current 200 people.
For the bank earlier cut bonuses and then forecasts layoffs, the above-mentioned people are surprised, “because the bank will migrate the department to Guangzhou, will only leave 4 to 5 percent of the staff based in Hong Kong”, “in fact, and the Family is not enough people, our colleagues to do exhaustion, now (the bank) program is to move to the division The cost of the mainland to reduce, there is no excuse for not being laid off colleagues will be responsible for monitoring the quality of the investigation report of colleagues in Guangzhou”.
He said the news came suddenly, quite affect the morale of the team, another employee pointed out that the company did not formally send a big envelope, I believe that the business transfer to Guangzhou takes Time, and local staff still have to recruit.
It is understood that HSBC has not been able to cut the compliance department staff, the reason is that it must still be accountable to the Hong Kong regulator HKMA. Some people in the industry who do not want to be named analyze that HSBC is part of the more “paper work” processes moved north, the main information integration, etc., the decision-making level is still in Hong Kong.
HSBC has continued to increase investment in the Greater Bay Area in recent years, and see it as a major source of future growth. In fact, HSBC just announced last month the establishment of a new Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Greater Bay Area business unit, March officially took office in the head of business and finance SME Chen Qing Yao, will also serve as the department’s general manager, and the newly established Greater Bay Area business unit will be located in Guangdong.
And HSBC Asia Pacific CEO Wang Dongsheng attended the National People’s Congress earlier this month, also told the mainland media, plans to recruit more than 5,000 wealth management personnel in the next five years, including 3,000 additional wealth planning consultants in the Mainland, to expand wealth business. But he did not mention that even the Hong Kong compliance department will also have the process of moving north.
At the beginning of last year, HSBC set a global layoff plan of 35,000 employees by the end of 2022 (accounting for about 15% of the workforce at that time), CEO Praying said at the end of February that the progress was good and there was no need to update the layoff target, but only to fine-tune the core expenditure base of the three-year plan, from the control of not more than $31 billion target, further pressed to $30 billion. The management has repeatedly pointed out that Hong Kong is not the main layoffs business region.
As of the end of last year, HSBC Hong Kong employees about 29,000 people, including Hang Seng accounted for 7,925 people.
Recent Comments