Hundreds of jobs created in Birmingham as HSBC closes UK centres
Hundreds of new jobs are to be created in Birmingham after HSBC announced it was consolidating nine offices from across the UK into just two in the city.
The banking giant has selected Birmingham as its centre of excellence for its credit card and collections operations in the UK, which means an unexpected jobs boost.
A spokesman for the company said he could not reveal a precise number of new roles, as it is part of a wider restructure, but it would be “several hundred”.
However, the bank plans to cut around 1,700 posts from its UK workforce as part of the plans, which also include further losses among branch network back office staff in the UK.
The job cuts, which came after part-nationalised banks Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland were told they had to sell of parts of their business, been branded a mistake by union leaders.
HSBC UK chief executive Paul Thurston said: “Decisions that affect our people are always difficult, but this restructure is an essential part of the streamlining of our business and the migration of activities into centres of excellence around the country.
“We will do everything we can to support those of our people who are directly affected and to minimise the number of redundancies. We have a good track record of redeployment and we will make every effort to maintain it.”
HSBC plans to roll out the changes to the credit card and collections operations over the next year.
However, a spokesman said it would be able to confirm figures for job creation in Birmingham in early 2010.
HSBC, which employs about 40,000 people in its UK retail bank division, said the jobs would be lost over the next year.
The firm revealed there will be 212 roles lost in Southampton, 594 in Southend, 32 in Leicester, 109 in Sheffield, 17 in Birmingham, seven in London, 40 in Leeds, and 80 in Manchester. Various others will go across the country.
The announcement relates to the jobs to be cut in the business, rather than the estimated number of workers affected.
Because some staff work part-time and in effect share roles, it is thought around 2,200 people could actually lose their jobs as a result of the moves.
The announcement came 24 hours after Royal Bank of Scotland revealed plans to cut 3,700 jobs across its UK branch network.
Rob MacGregor, national officer for the Unite union, described the move as a “fundamental mistake” and said many of the staff affected earned as little as £14,000 per year.
He added: “The union does not believe this will do anything to improve the company’s future performance,” he said.
“HSBC should think again before cutting its skilled and dedicated workers.”
