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Economic crisis? HSBC India to fire 1,200 in 2012
The economic slowdown is beginning to hurt. In an email last week to its 6,000 employees in this country, MNC bank HSBC said it would slash 1,200 jobs in the New Year.
The economic slowdown is beginning to hurt. In an email last week to its 6,000 employees in this country, MNC bank HSBC said it would slash 1,200 jobs in the New Year.
That means one-fifth of its Indian headcount would be cut. The mail did not specify either the departments or the levels at which the layoffs would take place.
This has sent jitters among all sections of the bank’s staff.
An HSBC India spokesperson said all of the bank’s global businesses were being reviewed. “We are not commenting on specific details,” she added.
“Times are difficult for the financial services sector following the slowdown in India and across the world. Employees could feel the pressure rising in the coming months,” said Dev Bharat, director at recruitment consulting firm Executive Access India.
Staffers at India’s private sector banks are relatively safe as none of the major ones — ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank — has any plans to downsize in the near future, senior executives in these banks said.
But other foreign banks such as BNP Paribas and Citibank have also increased pressure on their workforce to perform, increasing the mood of unease in the industry. A Citibank spokesperson, however, said: “We have not been downsizing in India.”
