(Adds details on staff numbers, media report, union comments)
By Maya Nikolaeva and Lawrence White
PARIS/LONDON, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Management of HSBC
in France on Thursday denied a media report that it
plans to sell underperforming retail banking operations in the
country, a union source told Reuters, as it tried to reassure
8,000 local staff.
The Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday cited people
familiar with the matter and comes amid a sweeping review of
HSBC's operations worldwide by interim chief executive Noel
Quinn.
"We have just received a denial of the rumours by the
general management," the union source told Reuters.
HSBC declined to comment.
The bank's French retail business has around 270 branches
and could be worth around 1 to 1.5 billion euros ($1.10 billion
- $1.65 billion), analysts at KBW estimated. It employs up to
3,000 staff out of 8,000 in France overall, according to the
bank's annual report.
Another union source said that union representatives had a
meeting with the bank's local management last Monday where ways
of getting the business out of the "red" were discussed.
The bank is closing 9 branches and considered whether it
needed to close more. However, the possibility of selling the
business was not on the table during the meeting, the union
source said.
Quinn took over at HSBC after the shock ousting of John
Flint on Aug. 4. He has between 6 to 12 months from that date to
make his case for the permanent role, Chairman Mark Tucker said,
so he is expected to move quickly to try and improve HSBC
returns.
($1 = 0.9089 euros)
(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva in Paris and Lawrence White in
London; Editing by Richard Lough and Elaine Hardcastle)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)