Standard Chartered to cut 100 jobs in Hong Kong

Standard Chartered on Thursday announced the closure of its institutional cash equities, equity research and equity capital market operations, which will result in a reduction of about 100 jobs in Hong Kong.

The closure, aiming to exit or reconfigure non-core and underperforming businesses, will deliver around 100 million U.S. dollars of cost savings in 2016, and will impact approximately 200 roles across seven of the group's 70 markets, it said in a statement. Apart from Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia and some other places will also be affected.

The group's strategy of focusing on key cities and accelerating the switch to digital has resulted in around 2,000 job cuts announced or completed in the last three months. A further 2,000 reduction is expected during 2015, primarily to be achieved by not replacing staff when they leave, the group said.

These moves, adding to the closures of some of the branches in 2014, will contribute 200 million U.S. dollars of planned cost savings in 2015, it said.

Standard Chartered is an international banking group listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges as well as the National Stock Exchange of India.