HSBC targets additional $2-3 billion cost savings by 2016

HSBC said on Wednesday that the bank would target an additional $2 billion to $3 billion in cost savings between 2014 and 2016, as the bank axes jobs and sells noncore businesses with less than a year left in the first phase of its restructuring plan.

The bank has already achieved $4 billion of annualized sustainable cost savings under a restructuring plan launched in May 2011. "We will continue to exert tight cost discipline whilst streamlining processes and procedures," Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a strategy update, HSBC <0005.HK> re-affirmed a target range for return on equity of 12 to 15 percent, and said it was on track with its cost-savings plan, having cut $80 billion in risk-weighted assets from the bank's balance sheet through disposals of 52 businesses worldwide.

The bank's first-quarter results last Tuesday showed 46,000 fewer staff across the bank.

This restructuring means the bank is on track to reach Gulliver's goals of getting costs below 52 percent of revenues and return on equity above 12 percent by this year.

(Reporting By Lawrence White; Additional reporting by Denny Thomas; Editing by Chris Gallagher)