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HSBC relocation decision to made in next ‘few months’

HSBC has said it will make its decision whether to move its HQ out of London within the next few months, rather than years.

The bank, which has been based in the country since 1993, would transfer only 250 out of 48,000 jobs if the relocation goes ahead.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: “It’s going to take us a few months [to decide], not years,”

“It’s quite hard to hire people in Guangzhou and explain to them why their compensation has to be constrained [by what happens in the UK], particularly when US and others don’t have to,”

Mr Gulliver said the bank intentionally announced its headquarters review before the UK general election in order to make it “as apolitical as possible.”

The statements came as HSBC reported a pre-tax profit of $7.06bn for the first three months of the year, up 4% on last year.

He continued: “Our business recovered well in the first quarter following a difficult [fourth quarter]”

It is expected that HSBC may give details of the methodology that it will use to assess whether to move on 9 June

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .