Banking giant HSBC is reportedly planning a round of cuts among senior managers under plans to save up to 300 million US dollars (£229 million).
New boss Georges Elhedery is said to be considering a merger of its commercial banking division with the investment banking arm as he puts his stamp on the business since taking over as chief executive last month, according to the Financial Times.
It is understood the merger would see roles axed among its high-paid top bankers across the two divisions, with an announcement expected by the end of the month.
HSBC was not immediately available to comment.
The group has already seen a shake-up of its senior management, which was announced days before former chief financial officer Mr Elhedery took on the top job on September 2.
This saw Barry O’Byrne, formerly chief executive of its global commercial banking arm, move across to head up global wealth and personal banking, with no direct replacement yet appointed.
The reported merger plans would allow it to strip out roles that are duplicated across the two divisions.
But the savings it is said to be targeting would be a fraction of group costs, which hit 16.3 billion dollars (£12.5 billion) in the first half of 2024 after rising 5% year on year.
At the time of the bank’s half-year results in July, Mr Elhedery insisted he was not planning any major strategy overhaul, but said he would speed up plans already in place.
HSBC has previously attempted to combine parts of the back office operations of commercial and investment banking, but the plans were halted due to the pandemic.
The bank reported better-than-expected pre-tax profits of 21.6 billion dollars (£16.5 billion) for the first half of 2024, largely stable on the mammoth 21.7 billion dollars (£16.6 billion) haul it made a year earlier.
Its second-quarter results beat expectations, with profits defying forecasts of a fall by rising 1%, helping it unveil another 3 billion dollars (£2.3 billion) in share buybacks.