British banking giant HSBC intends to sell its operations in Brazil and Turkey, shrink its investment bank and cut up to 25,000 jobs globally in a bid to slash costs and bolster returns to shareholders.
However, the bank plans to maintain a presence in Brazil to serve large corporate clients with respect to their international needs.
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The lender said that nearly half the job cuts will come from the sale of Brazilian and Turkish businesses, while the other half will come from slashing about 10% of the remaining 233,000 staff by consolidating IT and back office operations and closing branches.
Nearly 8,000 job cuts are expected to be in Britain.
The bank, which sold or exited 77 countries or businesses in the last four years, is looking to save $4.5-5bn per year and hit a return on equity of 10% by the end of 2017.
In a regulatory filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, HSBC also revealed that it plans to reduce its risk weighted assets by $290bn including a reduction of its global banking and markets division to less than a third of the groups’ total risk-weighted assets.
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By GlobalDataThe bank however intends to accelerate investments in Asia. It plans to develop its business in both the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, China, and in the ASEAN region.
HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: "The world is increasingly connected, with Asia expected to show high growth and become the centre of global trade over the next decade. I am confident that our actions will allow us to capture expected future growth opportunities and deliver further value to shareholders."
HSBC added that it will complete headquarters review by end 2015.
