Europe's largest bank HSBC is to lay off 1,100 of its staff worldwide, with half of them leaving the London office alone, it has been reported.
Blaming recent financial troubles relating to the credit crisis, all of the cuts will affect back room jobs at the company with 600 taking place at the Canary Wharf base in the capital.
It was announced earlier this year that half-year profits had fallen by 28 per cent to £5.2 billion after writing down a number of bad debts in the US.
A spokesman for HSBC based in Hong Kong, Gareth Hewett, said: "We've taken the action because of the current market conditions, the economic environment and our cautious outlook of 2009."
It was reported earlier this month that after a fall in profits by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, HSBC had officially become the world's largest bank by market capitalisation.
