HSBC’s Board Orders Executives to Consider Deeper Cuts, FT Says

(Bloomberg) -- The coronavirus pandemic has prompted HSBC Holdings Plc’s board to order a review of the bank’s recent reorganization, according to the Financial Times.

The health crisis requires more drastic measures than those announced three months ago in what was HSBC’s biggest overhaul in its 155-year history, the newspaper said in its Tuesday edition, citing senior people at the London-based bank it didn’t identify.

HSBC in February announced plans to cut 35,000 jobs, $4.5 billion in costs and $100 billion of risk-weighted assets by reducing its U.S. and European businesses and investment bank, though the pandemic has since prompted management to pause layoffs.

The board is now pressing executives to restart the overhaul and consider even more dramatic changes, the FT said. Those include further cuts or even a possible sale of its U.S. business as well as its retail network in France and operations in smaller non-strategic countries. A spokesperson for HSBC declined to comment on the report.

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