HSBC rules out large scale job cuts in India

Mumbai: A day after announcing trimming its global workforce by 30,000, banking major HSBC on Tuesday ruled out any significant job cuts in India, a strategic market where it is fighting high attrition rate. Responding to a question on whether job cuts announced by the global management on Monday would apply to India, HSBC India Chief Executive Stuart A Davis told reporters, "I think India already has a very high attrition rate. We are hard-pressed to even catch up on the replacements."

"There is a war for talent out there, (however) as I said, there will be reallocation of resources," he added.

He said re-allocation of resources is not going to be a job cuts.

I hate the word cut heads. What we are trying to do is to eliminate bureaucracies at the back-end," he added.

Davis further said that reallocation of resources means that if there are too much of bureaucracies at the back-end, what is needed is streamlining the back-end and use the resources in the front-end.

"All countries in the APAC will follow the same principle as the rest of the world, but I think as far as India is concerned, being classified as a strategic market, the treatment will be different," Davis said.

HSBC has 50 branches across the country employing about 6,000 people.

"As far as India is concerned, I won't be overly concerned. The important thing is that both India and China are classified as strategic markets. So we will continue to feel for India and China," he said.

"But generally speaking, we will eliminate as much bureaucracies at the back end as possible by streamlining operations and our IT systems. But we will continue to grow at the front-line," Davis added.

He also hinted at more hiring if the economy continues to grow the way it is.

"If GDP is going to grow at 7.5 per cent, I think India is probably to be at that range also, then I have to say the head-count will probably go up. But I cannot guarantee that every single part of India operations is going to grow," Davis concluded.

The bank had on Monday said it had already cut 5,000 jobs following restructuring of operations in Latin America, the US, Britain, France and the Middle East and that it would cut another 25,000 between now and 2013, according to media reports.