The South American subsidiary of HSBC slashed 4.5% of its workforce in three days of the last week, Agence France-Presse reported, noting that the layoffs would likely top 1,000 this week.
Meanwhile, the representatives HSBC declined to comment on the report.
Claimed to be Brazil’s seventh-largest bank by assets, with R$163.3bn ($64bn), HSBC Bank Brazil had 21,911 employees in the country at the end of June, Bloomberg reported citing the unit’s latest financial statement.
The bank has more than 1,700 branches and sub-branches across 550 Brazilian cities.
The lay-offs come as the London-based lender reported a 56% decline in third-quarter earnings from Latin America to $96m, primarily due to slow down of business in Brazil and Mexico.
However, the company’s pretax profit rose 1.8% to $4.61bn for the period ending 30 September 2014, from $4.5bn a year ago.
Image: The headquarters of HSBC Brazil. Photo: Morio.
