HSBC has received about 200 early retirement applications from its staff of 1,300, a number which sources said was unexpected.
Sources close to high-ranking HSBC officials told the Times of Malta that this number came in despite the short time-window – employees were given just three weeks to send in their application to leave the job early.
They have been offered three years’ pay as compensation if the bank accepts their application.
HSBC Malta has about 1,300 employees on its payroll, costing it €52 million a year in salaries and benefits. This represents half the bank’s total annual costs.
It is estimated that, if the bank were to give early retirement to all those who applied, the move would cost some €20 million in one-time pay-outs.
HSBC has long been seeking ways to reduce its staff costs and the early retirement scheme launched last month was a test of how many of its employees wish to move out.
We did not expect that so many of our middle management and high-ranking officials would want to leave
“We were expecting some employees, particularly those over 50, to apply. However, we did not expect that so many of our middle management and high-ranking officials would also want to leave,” a senior manager involved in human resources said on the condition of anonymity.
According to another official, HSBC will not release all of the employees who wish to leave, “at least not all at once”.
“However, there has been talk in the bank of the need to shed some 350 employees over the next four years in order to increase productivity and profits,” he said.
The bank was asked for information on the number of employees it wishes to reduce but did not reply. Instead, it referred this newspaper to a recent interview given by CEO Andrew Beane to the Business Observer, in which he denied that the bank wanted to reduce its staff by 400.
“There is no target, no number of staff that we need to reduce,” he had insisted.
The new 36-year old CEO said the voluntary early retirement programme “is about reducing costs, not people. Clearly there is a link between them but the focus is cost management”.
HSBC registered a pre-tax profit of €52 million in 2014, down more than 40 per cent over the previous year.
BANK- NO DECISIONS YET
Meanwhile, in a company announcement today with reference to its cost reduction programme and the above report, HSBC said applications received for Voluntary Early Retirement are in the process of being reviewed and no decisions have been taken.