HSBC Set to Axe More Jobs to Save $1bn [VIDEO]

HSBC may announce more job cuts as the bank entered its third year of restructuring.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver is expected to unveil cost savings of at least $1bn (£651.1bn/€770.2bn) during its strategy day on Wednesday (15 May).

Gulliver is aiming to get costs below 52% of revenues or to get a return on equity above 12% by this year despite the bank's retail arm continuing to struggle outside its key markets, Hong Kong and the UK.

The bank has already slashed its global workforce from 300,000 to 254,000 through redundancies and closure of 52 business operations since 2011, which included nine this year, according to the Independent.

Analysts expect sale of more insurance operations and minority holdings on the cards, especially businesses in Europe, the United States and Latin America.

HSBC had a pre-tax profit of $8.4bn (£5.4bn, €6.4bn) for the first three months of the year, a 95% increase from a year ago. The 148-year-old firm had annual savings of $4bn and 46,000 fewer workers.

Gulliver has already disposed of risk-weighted assets to the tune of $80bn so far and has brought in more than $10bn, which raises the prospects of higher dividends to the shareholders.

"We believe the bank can increase its dividend at least 30 percent this year and in a yield hungry world, this will prove to be a strong catalyst and support for the stock price," Bernstein analyst Chirantan Barua said.

In December HSBC was slapped with a record fine of $1.9bn as part of US probe in to anti-money laundering investigations.