Published: March 09, 2009 09:27 am      

Jobs in London safe despite HSBC cuts

All 500 jobs at HSBC in London are safe, despite more than 6,000 cuts nationwide.

HSBC announced Monday the company would close 800 of its HFC and Beneficial Bank branches, which specialized in consumer and mortgage lending. While there are three HFC branches that will close in Lexington, there are no Beneficial Banks in Kentucky.

HSBC spokeswoman Kate Durham said the job cuts are a byproduct of the recession.

“It’s a business decision based on the current challenges in the economic environment,” she said.

Durham added London’s call center is safe from cuts because of the nature of the work that is performed there.

“We continue to perform customer care,” she said. “The London, Ky., center is a servicing facility.”

London’s HSBC center is one of five centers of its kind in the United States.

“We do collections here for our consumer lending business,” London’s HSBC Director Paul Rubino said previously.

As such, if someone is late on making a loan payment, the center employees call to get the bill paid.

As of summer 2008, HSBC employed 223,000 worldwide and served 110 million customers, making it is the largest bank in the world.

Durham said she could not confirm if more layoffs or cuts might be announced in the future.

“It’s never appropriate to speculate and say never,” she said.