Unite Demands HSBC Stop Misleading Staff and Customers on Job Losses Today

September 8th, 2009 LONDON - Diageo's announcement today (Wednesday 9th September) to reject proposals by the Scottish Government that would safeguard jobs has outraged Unite, the UK's biggest union. Unite is also furious that Diageo has made the announcement before the conclusion of the 90-day consultation period.

August 24th, 2009 LONDON - Unite union has sharply criticised Lloyds Banking Group's (LBG) confused management style today (25th August) as the bank announces over 200 job losses in its general insurance arm, bringing the total job cuts at the bank to 7,500 this year. Only last week LBG decided to abandon the closure of the Cheltenham and Gloucester branches bringing reprieve for 900 staff.

August 24th, 2009 LONDON - Unite, Britain's biggest union, has today described RBS's planned cuts to its pension scheme as a 'body blow' to its 60,000 staff. RBS today (25th August) announced changes to the group's defined benefits final salary pension scheme.

August 5th, 2009 LONDON - Date: Thursday, 6th August 2009 Time: 9.30am - 11.30am Location: The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, EC1Y 4SD Workers from Barclays are today (Thursday) protesting outside the Barclays shareholder meeting as part of their dispute regarding pensions. Unite members will carry placards stating: "Hands off our pensions" to highlight their anger at proposals by Barclays to close their final salary pension scheme.

April 16th, 2009 LIVERPOOL, England - Photo and interview opportunities Date: Saturday 18th April 2009 Time: 11.30 am Venue: Bold Street (Lyceum Building), Liverpool City Centre L1 - Liverpool City Central Business Improvement District Workers at United Biscuits' Liverpool Binns Road site have kick-started a petition to urge United Biscuits not to go ahead with plans to move 170 jobs to India. Unite members at United Biscuits face an uncertain future while the company decides on proposals to move UK jobs abroad later this month.

April 7th, 2009 LONDON - Unite, one of the former sponsors of the Rise anti-racism festival, has today (Wednesday), slammed London Mayor Boris Johnson for his short-sighted and hasty decision to cancel the event on the basis of what he deemed to be a lack of 'major sponsorship'. Unite regional secretary, Steve Hart, said: "Unite was never approached by the London Mayor, or by any of his staff in the run-up to this decision.

April 6th, 2009 LONDON - Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "The news that 4,500 RBS staff in the UK are to lose their jobs is truly devastating. Unite is appalled that thousands of people, who form the backbone of the RBS operations, are to be made redundant.

April 1st, 2009 LONDON - Derek Simpson, Unite joint general secretary, said: "The announcement by Aviva to cut 1,100 staff will cause alarm across the insurance industry. Today we see a scenario where a company that is continuing to deliver positive results is slashing the staff that have enabled them to weather the current financial storm.

March 24th, 2009 LONDON - Derek Simpson, Unite Joint General Secretary, said: "To slash 2,900 jobs demonstrates the insincerity of the claim by HSBC to be 'the world's local bank'. This decision will ravage a number of local communities as sites are closed and other work is sent abroad.

March 17th, 2009 LONDON - Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said: "Another review with more rhetoric than substance will do nothing to reassure consumers or staff in the financial services industry. Action is well over-due by those who oversee the UK's financial services sector in order to overhaul the flawed sector and bring back trust.

July 22nd, 2009 HSBC fined $5.2 million in UK for data lossLONDON — Britain's financial regulator said Wednesday it as fined three units of HSBC Group 3.185 million pounds ($5.2 million) for failing to protect consumer data from loss or theft. The Financial Services Authority said HSBC Life UK Ltd.

September 1st, 2009 Deal helps disabled dispute credit card chargesALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says HSBC bank's credit card division is agreeing to a new national standard to serve customers who are blind or deaf.

May 21st, 2009 HONG KONG - Hong Kong's leading bank, HSBC Holdings, Thursday was offering interest rates so low that customers would need to save $250,000 for a year to earn enough interest to buy a cup of coffee. A record low interest rate of 0.001 percent was being offered by HSBC, which has 4.2 million customers in the city of seven million, because of what it described as rock-bottom interbank rates.

April 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) Thursday said it has appointed the chief executive of its Indian operations, Naina Lal Kidwai, as the group chairperson and country head. 'Kidwai will assume chairmanship of HSBC Group companies in India and Stuart Davis, currently CEO of HSBC Bank Australia Ltd, will become the CEO of the bank in India,' Stephen Green, HSBC Holdings Plc group chairman, told reporters here.

July 16th, 2009 Lloyds Banking Group cutting 1,200 more jobsLONDON — Lloyds Banking Group announced Thursday it would cut another 1,200 jobs to reduce costs and rationalize operations after the government-backed merger of Lloyds TSB and Halifax/Bank of Scotland. Lloyds, whose biggest shareholder is the British government, said 650 permanent jobs would go by the first quarter of next year, 180 staff would move to new positions and 370 agency and contract staff would be cut in its group operations and insurance divisions.

August 3rd, 2009 HSBC 1H profit down 57 percentLONDON — HSBC Holdings PLC, the world's fifth-largest bank by assets, reported a 57 percent fall in first-half profit as bad loans increased due to the global economic downturn. The bank said first-half net profit was $3.35 billion compared to $7.7 billion in the first half of 2008.

April 24th, 2009 HSBC closes equity business in JapanTOKYO — HSBC Holdings PLC has shuttered its Japan equity business in Tokyo and shifted operations to Hong Kong, as the struggling banking giant reworks global strategy to improve its prospects. With the surprise announcement Friday to eliminate Tokyo-based stock trading and research, HSBC becomes the latest foreign financial firm to whittle its presence in the world's second-largest economy, now mired in its steepest recession since World War II.

August 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Indian outsourcer HCL Technologies has acquired its first data centre in the US from one of its customers, a report here said. HCL actually acquired the data centre in October but delayed announcing it until this month pending the upgrade of the facility.

April 17th, 2009 DURBAN - An Indian-origin store manager, Krish Pillay, was killed in Durban while heroically saving his staff and customers from gunmen, who had stormed into the Shoprite supermarket. The drama began when five armed robbers burst into the store and held staff and customers at gunpoint while they demanded money from the cash tills.

April 7th, 2009 HONG KONG - A senior HSBC banker has been convicted of indecent assault after drunkenly groping a woman in a Hong Kong karaoke bar, a news report said Tuesday. Michael Chan Chi-wang followed the 26-year-old woman into the washroom at the karaoke bar and grabbed her from behind, the Hong Kong Standard reported.