Europe’s largest bank, HSBC Holdings, announced its decision to cut 134 senior bankers in 2025, marking the largest annual reduction since the 2008 financial crisis. The layoffs cost the bank $67.5 million in severance pay alone.
According to the Financial Times report on Friday, the number of senior bankers laid off by HSBC last year accounted for 10% of the total at that level within the group. The extensive cuts in senior executives come as CEO Georges Elhedery spearheads reforms in the investment banking business, including the closure of merger and equity capital market advisory operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe.
The axed senior bankers, internally referred to as “significant risk-takers,” were predominantly concentrated in the investment banking and trading divisions.
A source close to HSBC revealed that the layoffs are part of broader trends within the group and not limited to investment banking alone. Elhedery previously stated that the restructuring aims to address “overlap” positions within the bank.
The report highlighted that this is one of the largest events of high-paid banker layoffs in European banks since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
Following HSBC, Santander of Spain and Deutsche Bank had the second and third highest number of layoffs in 2025, cutting 49 and 48 significant risk-takers, respectively. This was followed by BNP Paribas of France and Barclays, with 39 and 32 senior bankers being let go.
In terms of severance pay, Société Générale of France had the highest average payout at €870,000 per person, followed by Santander at €736,000 and Deutsche Bank at €437,500.
The report pointed out that banks typically trim costly senior executives during restructuring processes. In recent years, multiple European banks have initiated large-scale reorganizations, with some looking to reshape their investment banking divisions to adapt to market shifts. Currently, the recovery of Europe’s capital market advisory business is slow, and trading activities continue to lag behind those of the United States.