The London-headquartered bank has just gone through the biggest overhaul in at least a decade that saw its investment banking operations retreat from the Americas and Europe in favor of Asia and the Middle East. The revamp has also resulted in hundreds of job cuts, the departure of many top executives and streamlining of layers of management.
There’s more and tougher things to do, Roberts said, adding HSBC has never been a “bulge-bracket” bank. The transformation the lender has seen within such a short period of time is potentially the biggest in its history, he said.
“We will achieve the cost savings that we have set to achieve,” he said. “Year Two brings much more focus on simplification — not just cost efficiencies but being a better bank, able to respond quicker to be more agile. A lot of that takes a long time.”
The first phase of the revamp, which is organizational change, is coming to an end now, he added.
See also: UOB prices EUR850 mil worth of fixed rate covered bonds due 2030
Answering a question on what HSBC is doing in private markets, Roberts said part of the restructuring was to put the bank’s private credit operations in one place.
