HSBC restructure unlikely to have huge impact on Hong Kong economy: official

HONG KONG, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- A recent decision by British banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC to cut some 3,000 jobs in Hong Kong is unlikely to have a huge impact on the territory's economy, a top government official said Thursday, playing down the possible spillover effects of the event.
It was reported Wednesday that the bank's Asia-Pacific chief executive, Peter Wong, wrote a letter to local staff in Hong Kong that HSBC plans to lay off about 3,000 employees there over the next three years.
"The economy at the moment is doing fine, the labour market is pretty vibrant and robust. As long as we provide enough market information to the affected employees, we hope that the impact will be reduced," said Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Secretary for Labor and Welfare of the Hong Kong government.
The labor secretary said other banks in Hong Kong are not expected to follow suit.
"In regard to whether there is a market trend for redundancy, it appears to us that this is an individual corporate decision on the part of HSBC. We realize that in fact some banks have already indicated today that they have no plan for retrenchment and in fact some are talking about hiring extra people. So the picture in general is still fairly optimistic at the moment, fairly stable on the whole," he said.
HSBC's job cuts in Hong Kong came after the group's Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver announced plans last month to cut annual costs by US$3.5 billion. The layoffs will largely involve back-office managerial positions.
The British bank has 296,000 employees worldwide including 23,000 in Hong Kong.
HSBC joins other big financial institutions that have announced layoffs this summer including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp. and others.