to worry about HSBC?

[manicinsomniac]

I'm a bit clueless about finance and banking but this seems scary to me.

On our news they're announcing huge job losses.

On the Brazilian news they're announcing that they're pulling out of the country altogether.

Have I missed something? Does anyone know if they're safe? It makes me want to hide all my money under the mattress (I won't, I know that's how banks crash altogether).

[Sallygoroundthemoon]

Don't worry. Anything under 85k in the UK (are you UK?) is protected by the government. Besides HSBC are huge and hopefully would not be allowed to go tits up.

[HeresMyBrightIdea]

Brazil and Mexico are not really profitable countries for banking. Most of the job losses are there.

The UK job losses were widely expected. They are moving their HQ from London to Birmingham, and they need to cut down on some of the layers of antiquity that aren't relevant anymore.

They made £12 billion in profit last year. It didn't hit the target they'd set, but they set ambitious targets, and take drastic action if they don't hit them. They aren't in trouble, they are just restructuring. It needs to happen across the banks.

From a financial point of view, their actions make complete sense.

[Want2bSupermum]

I'm not surprised to hear they are pulling out of brazil. It's very high risk to do business there.

I think the problem HsBC has is political. Citigroup do the same style of global banking. I find it impossible to believe that HsBC is having all these issues with money laundering while Citibank is as clean as a whistle.

[Andrewofgg]

Job losses are always sad news, but businesses change and so do their needs.

Twenty years ago you could not open a magazine without finding an envelope addressed to a photo-processing lab. At one point there were 80,000 people working in that sector, mostly women. And now they are nearly all gone.

And who closed them? We did, when we bought digital cameras and stopped sending off films.

And the railways about which people get sentimental killed the canals and the coaching inns.

That's life. You can't freeze the world in aspic.

[TTWK]

Don't worry. Anything under 85k in the UK (are you UK?) is protected by the government.

They say this, but if a major High St bank went under, where is the money going to come from? The maths don't match the promise.

[manicinsomniac]

Thanks, mostly sounds quite reassuring for us UK plebs then!