HSBC staff to go

Daily Mail
HSBC staff to go as sub-prime crisis bites

HSBS is wielding the axe again as the aftershocks from America’s home loans crisis reverberate across the banking industry. The banking giant said it would cease trading repackaged American mortgages and slash 120 jobs, 20 of them in London. HSBC’s foray into the US sub-prime loans market led to its first ever profit warning this year. In September it said it would slash more than 750 jobs at its Decision One unit, which packaged up sub-prime loans and sold them on. It also ceased buying debt from other banks. The appetite for high-risk debt has evaporated as mortgages advanced to families who cannot afford payments default at record rates.
[Daily Mail page 91 - 9.11.07. Also reported in The Independent page 54.]