HSBC's turnaround target doubled to $2 billion, plan on target | WPN World People News

HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, Thursday said it was on track towards its slimming down programme after making sustainable cost savings of $2 billion in the first year of a three-year turnaround plan.

The bank is on target to meet its return on equity and other financial targets, Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said.

He said that HSBC was on target to meet profitability and cost savings in the planned three-year turnaround plan.

The bank doubled the annual revenue boost expected from its turnaround plan to $2 billion, as it picks 22 markets to drive its growth and eyes more cost cutting to cope with new regulations in the wake of the European financial crisis, which is a major worry.
"We don't know absolutely how the euro zone plays out and whether Greece stays in, whether firewalls are high enough to protect Spain and, frankly, whether markets take things into their own hands before June 17 (when Greece holds new elections)," Gulliver said.

Gulliver wants to streamline HSBC and focus more on its fast-growing Asian markets.

The bank has so far sold 28 businesses, and some 15,000 staff have been transferred outside the group, with the exits and disposals releasing about $55 billion in risk-weighted assets, the bank said in a statement released to the Hong Kong bourse.

"We will continue to simplify HSBC, enabling us to integrate systems and operate to high global standards internationally," Gulliver said. "We will continue to run off our legacy assets, including the US consumer and mortgage lending book."

Source: Europe News.Net