HSBC Rejects Break Up Calls

by Gill Montia

Story link: HSBC Rejects Break Up Calls

Michael Geoghegan, the Chief Executive of HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, has rejected recent suggestions that the bank should be broken up.

He sees HSBC’s global presence and network and distribution abilities as a major advantage to the business and is instead focusing on enabling different areas of the business to form stronger links and integrate further. However, there is also a determination to ensure that the sum of the parts of the business reflect the value of this group.

Recently there has been speculation that the bank’s current strategies will result in head office job losses. Advances in technology could mean that the company does not need as many staff at its headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf.

In fact, there are plans to reduce occupancy of the London headquarters to 50%, allowing some of the building to be sublet. Whilst this could be achieved in some part by employees working locally rather than commuting, HSBC also has plans to reallocate expenditure from staff costs to technology.

HSBC has 10,000 offices across 83 countries and its annual technology bill amounts to £2.5 billion.