HSBC equities professionals are now phobic of Thursday calls

It's been nearly a week since HSBC's equity researchers got the call informing them that their jobs are at risk of disappearing. 

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As the dust settles, the affected individuals are voicing complaints about the process. 

In particular, they claim to have been misled about HSBC's intentions with the pre-booked calls last week. A week before the calls happened, the team was told to be available the following Thursday and Friday. Calls were then booked in, and insiders say they were also told not to draw any conclusions from the day of their appointment. 

In fact, however, they claim that everyone called by management on Thursday was put at risk. The Friday calls are understood never to have happened: after informing people on Thursday that their jobs were under scrutiny, insiders say HSBC then convened the remaining team on Thursday late afternoon/evening and informed them they were among the survivors. 

HSBC declined to comment. 

"It was a blatant untruth," says one of the researchers let go. "They clearly said not to assume anything from the order of the meetings." 

Bloomberg reported today that HSBC cut "dozens" of analysts, including in fixed income, and that in the future HSBC's analysts will cover multinational companies that operate in Asia, the Middle East and other emerging markets.

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