The Brazilian subsidiary of the British bank HSBC has laid off about 800 employees during the last week, and according to calculations by the Workers’ Guild, which were published on Saturday by the newspaper “O Estado de Sao Paulo” and picked up by the local press, that figure is expected to reach 1,000.
Funds Society contacted the bank’s subsidiary in Brazil to confirm the news; the company, however, declined to comment on the news which has been reported in the local press and is echoing the international financial press.
The National Confederation of Financial Sector Workers (Contraf-CUT) reported that a group of workers at the Curitiba Agency (southern Parana state capital) went on strike in protest at the cuts that the Group is carrying out in the country.
Employees at the Curitiva administrative center in Sao Paulo also joined Curitiva in the stoppages. According to Contraf, layoffs are taking place across the country and represent 4.5% of the group’s workforce. In Brazil, the bank has over 1,700 branches and offices in 550 cities.
Likewise, HSBC Brazil has more than 21,000 workers nationwide and is the fourth largest private bank in the country and the seventh in terms of assets. As for the results of the British bank during the third quarter, although it recorded a 7% increase in net profits, results in Latin America fell by 56% before tax, mainly because of its business in Brazil and Mexico.
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