HSBC's move aligns with its ongoing restructuring efforts. Elhedery, who succeeded Noel Quinn last September, is leading a major business restructuring initiative. As part of the overhaul, in January 2025, HSBC merged its commercial banking division with its global banking and markets unit, which includes IB. This initiative aims to mitigate costs by reducing the bank's expensive layer of senior staff. The bank aims to achieve nearly $1.5 billion in annualized savings by the end of 2026. The company will likely incur nearly $1.8 billion in total severance and other upfront charges by the end of next year to implement business simplification efforts. Also, HSBC plans to redeploy $1.5 billion of additional costs to priority growth areas over the medium term.