The British bank HSBC has seen a sharp fall in profits over the past six months. It came as the consequences of, among other things, corona crisis, lower interest rates and increased geopolitical tensions are the reason for this, according to Noel Quinn.

HSBC reported a profit before tax of $ 4.3 billion. That’s 65 percent less than a year earlier. Revenues fell by 9 percent to 26.7 billion dollars. Quinn specifically mentioned tensions between the United States and China as a longer-term challenge for the bank.

“The current tensions inevitably create challenging situations for an organization like HSBC,” said Quinn.

The CEO also announced that the reorganization announced in February would be speeded up. This includes, for example, the merging of activities and the reduction of the US office network. HSBC also intends to cut a total of 35,000 jobs in the coming years, as it turned out at the time. In the first half of the year, 4,000 of these have disappeared. The Financial Group currently employs just over 230,000 people.