HSBC reviews

-Standards lag behind peers. -Decades-old issues continue to be band-aided instead of addressed head-on and in a sustainable manner. -Old school emphasis on working hard instead of working smarter -Overpromising and underdelivering on efficiency initiatives -Offshoring used as a Swiss-Army knife for cost issues (see above re: band-aid approach) -Difficult to perform role without major compromise as administrative tasks consume large part of nearly all roles; little done to help employees day-to-day over last 5 years despite lagging pulse surveys. -Longstanding RACI issues in roles, regardless of business, result in many with a desire to and/or a track record of expertise in pushing improvement wearing hats extending well beyond intended scope of role. -Executive management dated in terms of philosophy and management style. -Strategy of nearly all the "eggs in one basket" re: Asia profitable, but, obviously quite risky and creating resentment amongst Asian stakeholders (leading to largest Asian shareholder to propose breaking up the firm which sent the Board on a charm offensive to assuage concerns and sway the vote). -Frenzied, unfocused environment (which can be said about the last firm that's convinced it can do everything its peers divested from years ago due to risk, profitability, sustainability, etc.) -Higher than average voluntary attrition and targeted reductions skewed toward higher performers creating challenging headwinds. -Executive management and messaging re: Russian assets (HSBC Bank (RR)) bordered on misinformation, but, at least payments finally stopped on 08SEP2023 (see points re: management above) when it truly became unsustainable from a profitability perspective.

Hours and responsibilities have increased greatly for retail banking and wealth management division without any increase in pay or even a thank you. The core problem with the bank is that they are behind in times in terms of technology and strategy. Another problem is that the firm is extremely top heavy. We have so many managers on top of managers that layers are 10 fold than what it used to be. We were in a meeting and our head was saying our revenue is pale in comparison to our spending. So what do they do? Cut tellers who are making 14-15 dollars/hour. All I've thought about was why not trim the fat up top and create more transparency and save 100s of thousands of dollars? That's because layers are safer for the guys on top to protect their position. From my understanding the heads run the bank by a spreadsheet. It's similar to Marxist theory. Works on paper but doesn't work in real life. The branches are thirsty for resources and now the hours have increased. So now we have increased hours with less resources, which leads to poor customer service. New tech has led to even longer hours because there's no alpha or beta testing and they just roll it out. I really hope the top management gets their heads together and think things through before making any big changes like this.