{"text":[[{"start":11.479,"text":"HSBC spent nearly $70mn last year axing its biggest cohort of senior bankers since the financial crisis, as the lender underwent a sweeping restructuring that included shutting key parts of its investment bank."}],[{"start":25.28,"text":"Europe’s biggest bank shed 134 of its most senior employees — so-called material risk takers — last year, about 10 per cent of the group’s total, and paid them a total of $67.5mn in severance, company filings show."}],[{"start":40.13,"text":"It was HSBC’s largest annual cull of material risk takers since the 2008 financial crisis and significantly exceeded cuts by other European lenders in 2025, according to an FT analysis of regulatory filings and company accounts."}],[{"start":57.05,"text":"The cuts came as chief executive Georges Elhedery pushed ahead with a major overhaul of HSBC’s investment banking operations, shutting down its mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets advisory businesses in the US, UK and Europe."}],[{"start":71.695,"text":"Material risk takers are senior employees whose roles are deemed capable of substantially affecting a bank’s risk profile and are often concentrated in lenders’ investment banking and trading businesses."}],[{"start":83.81,"text":"One person close to HSBC said the reduction to its pool of material risk takers was part of a “broader trend” across the bank and was not confined to the investment bank. Elhedery has previously indicated that his overhaul would target “duplicate” roles within the bank."}],[{"start":99.62,"text":"The reduction at HSBC contributed to the biggest cull in high-paid bankers across Europe’s largest lenders since the pandemic in 2020, filings show."}],[{"start":107.543,"text":"Santander and Deutsche Bank recorded the next largest declines after HSBC, shedding 49 and 48 material risk takers last year respectively, while BNP Paribas and Barclays removed 39 and 32 senior bankers during the same period."}],[{"start":124.214,"text":"Société Générale had the highest average severance payout for departing material risk takers last year at €870,000, followed by Santander and Deutsche Bank, which handed out average packages of €736,000 and €437,500 respectively. Santander had the largest single severance payout across the industry, giving one banker a package worth €8.3mn."}],[{"start":149.01,"text":"Banks often target expensive layers of senior staff as part of restructurings to maximise cost-cutting. Several European banks have embarked on sweeping restructurings in recent years, while others have sought to reshape their investment banking divisions to adapt to shifting market conditions."}],[{"start":166.335,"text":"While the trading businesses of Europe’s biggest investment banks have benefited from heightened market volatility fuelled by a turbulent geopolitical environment, capital markets advisory work has been slower to recover, with dealmaking activity in Europe continuing to lag the US."}],[{"start":182.332,"text":"Despite paying out the lowest total amount of severance to its “key risk takers” across the industry last year, UBS spent $942mn on total group severance payments to more than 7,500 staff — a jump of a third on the previous year — as it nears the completion of its integration of former rival Credit Suisse."}],[{"start":202.8,"text":"The average severance payout at the Swiss lender was $125,000 for 2025."}],[{"start":216.11,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787288888_4940.mp3"}