HSBC to push ahead with shutting over 100 branches despite profits

HSBC plan to push ahead with plans to shut more than 100 branches despite reporting bumper profits and a £4.5m pay packet for its boss – so is YOUR local bank on the list?

• HSBC announced it will close 114 branches across the UK from April
• Pre-tax profits reportedly jumped by more than 90% in the last 3 months of 2022

More than 100 HSBC branches will close this year despite pre-tax profits rising and its boss’s salary increasing to £4.5million, according to reports. 

HSBC previously announced that it will close 114 branches across the UK from April as it blamed the Covid pandemic for a decline in footfall.

The banking giant said those branches closing are serving fewer than 250 people a week, confirming its remaining network will total 327 after the new wave of closures. 

Reports now say that although pre-tax profits for the whole of last year were 17 per cent lower to £14.5billion, higher interest rates helped the bank’s pre-tax profits jump by more than 90 per cent to £4.3billion in the last three months of 2022. 

And according to the Sun, Chief Executive Noel Quinn had his bonus upped by 36 per cent to £1.8million for last year, taking his pay to £4.5million.

HSBC chief executive Noel Quinn reportedly had his bonus lifted by 36 per cent

The banking giant said those branches closing are serving fewer than 250 people a week, confirming its remaining network will total 327 after the new wave of closures (stock image)

He told the newspaper: ‘There will be no easing off at all on costs. We are now considering up to $300million (£247million) of additional costs for severance in 2023.’

The report said this would cover the cost of employees leaving the bank and not being replaced – not redundancies. 

MailOnline has contacted HSBC for comment. 

HSBC previously said, after announcing the closure of more than 100 branches, that around 100 staff could leave the bank, but stressed that it hopes to redeploy all its employees at affected branches to other roles within HSBC, either to other branches or to a different position.

It said it planned to speak to all staff in the branches due to close but estimated that around 100 employees could leave.

It is also developing new ‘banking hubs’ and community pop-ups in its shake-up of the network and plugging more investment into digital banking services.

Furthermore, since 2021 it has provided 1,500 free Samsung tablet devices to customers selected by local branches who cannot afford or who have no access to equipment to help with digital banking, HSBC said.

Read more: HSBC announces it will CLOSE 114 branches

Jackie Uhi, HSBC UK’s managing director of distribution, said: ‘People are changing the way they bank and footfall in many branches is at an all-time low, with no signs of it returning. 

‘Banking remotely is becoming the norm for the vast majority of us.

‘The decision to close a branch is never easy or taken lightly, especially if we are the last branch in an area, so we’ve invested heavily in our ‘post-closure’ strategy, including providing free tablet devices to selected branch customers who do not already have a device to bank digitally, alongside one-to-one coaching to help them migrate to digital banking.’

When the closures were announced at the end of last year, Unite national officer Dominic Hook said: ‘Unite is appalled that there will be a further 114 bank branch closures by HSBC. This hugely profitable financial institution is walking away from the customers and communities who most need access to local banking services.

‘Unite is calling on HSBC to reconsider these branch closures during the consultation process before they abandon the most vulnerable in our society and leave them without a neighbourhood bank served by experienced knowledgeable staff. Of the total 114 closures proposed today the vast majority (108) of the closures will result in no HSBC branch within 3 miles and it is disgraceful that 25 communities will be left to travel over 15 miles to the nearest branch.

‘While this Government is happy to stand aside and allow banks to pay their city bankers astronomical bonuses, there is no political will to challenge the banks on their actions in our communities. Without any corporate social responsibility to require banks to stay on our high streets to help the elderly, disabled or vulnerable, then access to cash and banking will be lost forever.’

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