Peter Wong, the bank's Asia-Pacifc chief executive, emailed staff on Wednesday morning warning the cuts would take place over the next three years. HSBC cut 5,000 jobs in the first half of the year and will shed another 25,000 by the end of 2013, mostly in Europe and North America. This equates to 10pc of its 296,00 global workforce - 30,214 of whom are based in Hong Kong. However, the company has pledged to create 15,000 roles across its Asian business.

In the email, Mr Wong said: "While Hong Kong's cost-efficiency ratio is below the group average, there is still room to eliminate bureaucracy and improve our efficiency. By doing our part we will help make Hong Kong an even stronger part of HSBC.

"We will be focusing primarily on our support functions as we restructure to reduce management layers and improve efficiency. This does mean jobs will be eliminated. Our best estimate at this time is that approximately 3,000 existing roles will be reduced over these three years." HSBC's restructuring plan will see the company exit or scale back operations in countries including Poland, Russia and the US, where it lacks scale and has been struggling to....Read more on this story-----> HSBC to cut 3,000 staff in Hong Kong in bid to save £2.2bn