Household HSBC Watch

NEW DELHI, SEPT 21: The finance minister P Chidambaram has said, the allegations that HSBC Bank has forced its staff officers and secretaries to resign on “whimsical” grounds was not correct. Responding to a letter written by Shiv Sena MP Mohan Rawale in this regard, Mr Chidambaram said there were a few cases where some of the bank’s employees have been offered an exit option because of job redundancy, poor performance or voluntary retirement. In all these cases, the decision to exit has been voluntary and HSBC has paid an extremely generous severance package, which the bank claims to be much higher than the current market practice, he said.

The FM also made it clear that Reserve Bank had no powers to intervene in staff matters of foreign banks. Mr Rawale had written to the FM, after some of the agrieved staff of HSBC gave him a representation.