HSBC is cutting more than 100 jobs in Switzerland
A year ago, the Swiss private bank HSBC still considered the local location to be a growth market in which it wanted to make significant investments. Now she is shedding a large number of jobs and reducing her office space in Geneva.
After a poor year for Swiss private bank HSBC, in which wealthy clients withdrew a net $1 billion, the bank is shedding 110 jobs in Switzerland and reducing its Geneva office space, according to British newspaper «financial times» (Article behind payment barrier) reported on Monday.
The availability of the office at Quai des Bergues in the city center was informed on Monday last week that two floors of the building and more employees would have to share their desks. The bank will thus increase its building costs in Rhonestadt by around 20 percent in the coming years and thus make a significant contribution to improving the company’s profitability in Switzerland, according to an internal memo that the “FT” had access to .
Storage to Poland and India
The cuts in Switzerland come just a year after HSBC Group identified the country as a market in which it wanted to invest to build its wealth management business.
Many of the back and middle office functions are said to be relocated to more cost-effective locations such as Poland and Mumbai. Reducing the office space is part of the HSBC Group’s strategy of radically downsizing; at the head office in London, this effort is to be reduced by as much as 40 percent finews.ch previously reported.
Lost big customers
The radical measures in Geneva also illustrate the pressure on HSBC’s Swiss private bank, which appears to have had a poor result in 2021; This is in contrast to UBS, Julius Baer or Vontobel, for example. The net inflow of new money at the Swiss private bank HSBC in the past year fell by around 1 billion dollars – which means that on balance more customer money was withdrawn than deposited.
The FT suspects that the decline was due to some very large clients withdrawing their assets, rather than a decline in the overall number of clients. HSBC presents its 2021 financial statements on February 22, 2022.
More talent wanted
A spokesman for the bank said the job cuts in Geneva will not affect the front office, adding that HSBC intends to continue hiring relationship managers and investment advisors in the coming years.
“We remain fully committed to Switzerland,” he told the official newspaper. “The Swiss bank will expand its business with clients from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, expand its offering to ultra-high net worth clients and continue to hire talent.”
Will President Axel Lehmann and CEO Thomas Gottstein succeed in putting Credit Suisse back on the road to success?
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Yes, nothing can go wrong with two Swiss people.
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Yes, but that takes at least three years.
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Even with these two managers, everything stays the same.
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No, Thomas Gottstein has to go first.
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No, Credit Suisse can no longer be helped.