HSBC says the worst is nearly over for the bank's operations in Hong Kong, as its restructuring plans in the city are to be wrapped up by the end of the second quarter.
But the bank would not say how many Hong Kong employees it had laid off or how many it planned to let go as it concluded its cutbacks. Last week it said there would be fewer job cuts in the city than the 3,000 originally estimated.
At the same time, the banking group said chief executive officer Stuart Gulliver received GBP6.6 million (HK$81 million) in actual pay, bonuses and awards for last year at a time when the British government is calling for banks to rein in excessive executive pay as unemployment reaches a more-than-a-decade high.
'A number of reductions will take place this year,' said Gulliver. He added the bank would continue to hire more people for front-office functions, involving direct interaction with customers.
Last year, while HSBC was cutting staff in Hong Kong, it was also hiring here. The net effect was that the head count in the city dropped by around 180.
HSBC is one of the city's largest employers, with 28,984 employed here at the end of last year.
Globally, the bank has fired about 11,000 people since the first quarter of last year. Gulliver said about 19,000 more jobs were expected to go globally. But he refused to say how many jobs would be lost in Hong Kong when asked to specify.