Staff fear job cuts as HSBC eyes office move to Shanghai

HSBC staff in Hong Kong were left fearing job cuts last night after the group's chief executive said some of its back office operations might be relocated to Shanghai.

Aman Mehta, chief executive of HSBC, said a new operation could be located 'near Shanghai', where he believed the bank might be able to find enough employees with English language skills.

The centre would provide support for HSBC's Hong Kong operations as well as its other global banking units, Mr Mehta said in an interview with Reuters news agency.

The move is believed to be part of the bank's efforts to cut the cost of operations in Hong Kong, where labour and office costs far outstrip those on the mainland.

A spokeswoman for HSBC confirmed the bank was looking into the feasibility of setting up another processing centre in the mainland next year. But she declined to say where the new centre would be and how many jobs were likely to be relocated.

'We are looking at a number of sites in China and the viability of the sites,' she said.

The spokeswoman also refused to say if there would be job losses locally, stressing there had not been any redundancies after they relocated their processing centre to Guangzhou in March.