HSBC to shed 50,000 jobs in quest for higher payouts

HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC pledged a new era of higher dividends on Tuesday, laying out plans to slash nearly one in five jobs and shrink its investment bank by a third to combat sluggish growth across its sprawling empire. Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver has made it his mission to boost profits since taking the helm of Europe's largest bank by assets in 2011 but his efforts have so far been foiled by high compliance costs, fines and low interest rates. In the bank's second big overhaul since the financial crisis, it will speed up a cull of unprofitable units and countries by cutting almost 50,000 jobs - half of them from selling businesses in Brazil and Turkey.

HSBC to shed 50,000 jobs in quest for higher payouts source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/hsbc-boss-prepares-axe-jobs-041445002.html