HSBC Holdings Plc is set to cut about 10,000 jobs worldwide, as a part of a cost-cutting drive, under the leadership of new interim chief executive Noel Quinn.

This reduction in jobs would be a significant one considering the total HSBC headcount is around 238,000 employees. The present job cuts come after the dismissal of about 4,700 employees in August, which they described as a “challenging global environment” due to low-interest rates and the Brexit.

This lay-off comes on the back of several European banks making tens of thousands of job cuts as the banking industry faces low-interest rates and weak investment banking revenues.

“We’ve known for years that we need to do something about our cost base, the largest component which is people – now we are finally grasping the nettle,” briefed a person to the Financial Times. HSBC has declined to comment on the report.

HSBC for long has been shifting its resources to Asia, specifically China, as a part of a strategy started by its former CEO Stuart Gulliver, even after the US-China trade war and the Hong Kong protests. Gulliver had announced a plan to cut 30,000 jobs when he took the job in 2011 as a part of a programme to cut $3.5 billion in costs over three years and raise the bank’s return.

Last month the HSBC mentioned that the company is looking to hire 600 employees for its business in Asia till 2022, with more than half of it to be created by the end of this year. Noel Quinn started to work on the cost-cutting drive just days after he replaced John Flint, who was sacked because he purportedly did not take difficult decisions on job cuts.

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