EXCLUSIVE-HSBC cutting at least 200 senior operations managers worldwide -sources

HSBC is cutting as many as 15% of its 2,000 senior operations managers worldwide, as it attempts to streamline its management ranks and reduce costs, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

The global job cuts at the London-headquartered bank will fall across several business units and geographical locations and result in the loss of at least 200 positions, mostly with the title of Chief Operating Officer (COO), the sources said. HSBC, which used to position itself as the world's local bank, employs many COOs because country and business lines have their own separate COO, the sources said.

HSBC declined to comment. The lender has been shrinking its sprawling global business for several years, downsizing in many regions and exiting some countries entirely as it tries to improve shareholder returns.

The latest cuts are already underway, one of the sources said. CEO Noel Quinn said on Thursday HSBC has identified $1.7 billion of extra cost cuts it will make next year as it battles to meet an overall goal of costs rising by no more than 2% despite inflationary pressures.

Incoming finance officer Georges Elhedery has been involved in the project to trim management headcount, the sources said. The initiative, codenamed Project Banyan, follows HSBC's last major redundancy plan in 2020, which targeted up to 35,000 job cuts globally across all staffing levels.

Three separate sources confirmed job cuts were underway, as HSBC joins a chorus of other western banks axing staff as a bleak global economic outlook weighs on business, consumer and investment banking revenues. All the sources declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter. (Additional reporting by Elisa Martinuzzi and Sinead Cruise in London and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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