HSBC Said to Plan 1,000 U.K. Job Cuts, Consider Closing Offices

March 25 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, may cut about 1,000 jobs in the U.K., according to a person familiar with the situation.

The jobs will be eliminated in processing and operations, and some administration sites may be closed, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is confidential. London-based HSBC employs about 58,000 people in the U.K. and 330,000 worldwide.

“HSBC, like all banks, must be thinking it’s going to be a tough year and they are looking to make savings,” said Leigh Goodwin, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Ltd. in London who has an “underperform” rating on the stock. “The bank has always been cost conscious.”

HSBC is raising 12.5 billion pounds ($18.4 billion) in the U.K.’s biggest rights offering to boost its capital and fund expansion in emerging markets. The company eliminated about 500 jobs in the U.K. in November and 1,100 positions at its global banking and markets unit in September. Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third-largest bank, has shed more than 4,500 jobs this year.

An HSBC spokesman declined to comment, saying the bank would never discuss job cuts without first discussing the matter with employees.

HSBC, unlike rivals Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc, hasn’t needed a capital injection from the government and its share offering is fully underwritten.