HSBC To Cut Over 6,000 Jobs, Reports Major Profit Tumble

HSBC's net profits in 2008 were down a breathtaking 70% from 2007, dropping from $19.13 to $5.73 billion, the London-based bank announced today. During a conference call with reporters, CEO Niall Booker said the bank will scale back its U.S. consumer-lending operations, closing its HSBC Finance Corp. and Beneficial brands, causing a loss of 6,100 jobs. (According to Crain's, there are two locations of each in NYC.) The retail-bank-branch and credit card business in the U.S. will remain intact, but HSBC's 2003 expansion in the consumer loan market is being written off as an epic fail. In a statement, HSBC said, "Management believes it will take years before property values return to the levels seen prior to the decline and, as such, has concluded that recovery in the sub-prime mortgage lending business is uncertain and the industry is unlikely to stabilize for a number of years." Executives also confirmed today that HSBC, which is Europe's biggest bank, lost about $1 billion to Bernard Madoff's fraud!