HSBC will maintain NY work force; selling branches

BUFFALO — HSBC doesn’t expect the bank’s plan to cut 30,000 jobs worldwide by 2013 to make a big dent in its western New York work force.

The British banking group announced the job cuts on Monday, saying also that it will sell almost half its retail branches in the United States. That includes the sale of 195 branches in New York and Connecticut to First Niagara Financial Group.

But Irene Dorner, president of HSBC Bank USA, says even after the sale, HSBC will still employ more than 4,000 people in western New York, most of them in downtown Buffalo.

She says the bank will also continue its community involvement throughout upstate New York. In Buffalo, it has naming rights on HSBC Arena, where the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres play.