British bank HSBC has decided to cut its branch network in India from 50 to 26, after its decision to shut down its private banking business targeted at the rich. The move would result in the bank losing the title of a foreign bank with the second largest branch network to Citibank.
“The affected roles are less than 1 per cent of the total HSBC employee population in India,” said a bank spokesperson. “A key priority is the fair treatment of our staff and we will do anything we can to assist affected employees during this business transition. Redeployment opportunities will be accorded to the affected employees.” HSBC has over 33,000 employees in India including those who work in its global back office.
Stuart P Milne, group general manager and CEO, HSBC India, said, “This move aims to position our retail business for the future, with the right mix of digital versus physical branch distribution. Customer expectations are changing rapidly and we need to adapt accordingly. India is a priority market for HSBC and we will continue to invest to achieve sustainable growth by supporting the needs of our customers in retail banking and wealth management, global banking and markets, and commercial banking, businesses where we have scale and a highly differentiated proposition.”
