Household HSBC Watch

HSBC was awarded a GBP 1 million grant in 2006 to create jobs in Scotland. Instead HSBC is closing a payment processing center in Livingstone, Scotland, leading a loss of 164 jobs. HSBC officially says the people can find other jobs in Scotland. I doubt that many would move to Edinburgh and other locations if they don’t need to. Will HSBC give the money back? Does the reduction in force actually save HSBC any money? Will HSBC be held to task on this?

Financial union Unite’s deputy general secretary Graham Goddard says the HSBC staff is now left without any attractive employment prospects locally. Unite will be challenging the company’s business case as the move does not seem to deliver the costs savings HSBC is claiming. Perhaps HSBC will send the jobs to India, where they will subcontracted to South America for the lowest possible wage on earth. Of course if HSBC can lose data on 370,000 customers without ever leaving home why would that worry anybody?