HSBC rules out job cuts in India

The country's oldest foreign bank HSBC ruled out job cuts in the country as part of its global recast, saying India is a strategic market and one of the key profit centres and that it is in fact finding it difficult to offset the high attrition rates.

As part of the 30,000 job cuts announced globally yesterday.HSBC, which is the largest bank in Europe, had said it would shed 30,000 jobs as it retreats from countries where it is struggling to compete.

HSBC India Chief Executive Stuart A Davis told today,"There will be a re-allocation of resources  but it's not going to be a cut heads.We are trying to do is to eliminate bureaucracies at the back-end."

HSBC India, the fully-owned subsidiary of the largest European bank, reported a 33% rise in pre-tax profit to USD 451 million from the country, making this unit the sixth most profitable regional for the British lender.

The bank had also said it had already cut 5,000 jobs following restructuring of operations in Latin America, the US, Britain, France and the Middle East and that it would cut another 25,000 between now and 2013.HSBC had said on Sunday it would sell 195 US branches to First Niagara Financial for about USD 1 billion in cash, and close another 13 of the 470 sites it had. HSBC also intends to sell its US credit card portfolio, which has over USD 30 billion in assets to free up capital. The bank now aims to shut or sell retail operations in a further 20 countries.

"I think India already has a very high attrition rate. We are hard-pressed to even catch up on the replacements. There is a war for talent out there, but as I said, there will be reallocation of resources," Davis said.

While HSBC gives some the chop, it’s also giving jobs to others. Apart from the 15,000 people the bank wants to hire in emerging markets, hiring in Hong Kong is ongoing as well. An anonymous source told us that HSBC is on the hunt for mid to senior candidates in risk, finance, operations and prime services.