British banking group HSBC is planning to shed hundreds of jobs at its investment banking arm in a bid to cut costs, reported Bloomberg.
The move will affect at least 500 employees in the global banking and markets unit.
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The layoffs are expected to begin next month, according to the report.
It will be carried out through the course of this year.
The redundancies form part of a broader downsizing exercise dubbed Project Oak.
A HSBC spokesperson was quoted as saying: “Business and function lines constantly re-evaluate their needs to ensure they have the right roles in the right locations.”
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By GlobalDataAccording to media reports, the move comes shortly after bank chief John Flint rebuked his senior manages for missing cost targets.
On the brighter side, HSBC recently announced plans to hire around 300 employees for its retail wealth management unit in Asia.
Besides, the bank highlighted its focus on Singapore.
For Singapore, HSBC intends to hire 50 wealth staff.
Earlier this month, the bank also unveiled plans to increase headcount at its technology development centres in China by more than 1,000.
In the first quarter of 2019, HSBC posted a pre-tax profit of $6.21bn.
This marked a surge of 31% from $4.75bn in the same quarter of 2018.
