HSBC to freeze salaries, hiring in 2016

HSBc has announced a freeze on salary and hiring in 2016, in a bid to cut cost, Europe's largest lender told its employees in an email on Friday.

The move comes at a time when a number of banks including Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland are streamlining their operations outside the home country in a bid to cut cost. 

HSBC plans to save up to $5 billion by 2017.

In June last year, the company had decided to cut nearly one in five jobs and cut its investment bank operations by a third. The move came on the back of slowing economic growth and tighter norms for banks.