Top five stories of the week – December 2, 2022

Here’s our pick of five of the best news stories from the world of finance and technology this week.

Crypto exchange Kraken will lay off 30% of its staff as it looks to weather the crypto winter

Kraken lays off 1,100 employees

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to lay off 30% of its workforce – 1,100 employees – as it looks to “adapt to current market conditions”.

In a post on the company’s blog, co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell says the cuts take the company’s workforce “back to where it was just 12 months ago” after a period of rapid growth, adding that the decision will “allow us to maintain operations at long term”.

Powell says all affected employees have been notified and will receive “extensive support as they transition from the company”.

Kraken joins an ever-growing list of companies to reduce the size of their workforce in recent times.

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HSBC UK is to close 114 bank branches next year

HSBC has announced that it will close 114 bank branches across the UK from April 2023, citing customer migration from physical to digital banking.

The banking giant states that over the past five years, the use of the branch network by regular customers has fallen by 65%, and the number of visitors to 74% of the closing branches has fallen by “at least 50%”.

“The decline in branch use has accelerated so much since the Covid-19 pandemic that some of the branches closing now serve fewer than 250 customers a week,” HSBC says.

As part of its branch network review for the new year, HSBC says it plans to expand the functionality of its digital banking offering and invest “tens of millions of pounds” in updating and improving its remaining branch network.

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National Australia Bank expands AWS collaboration with ‘multimillion dollar’ cloud deal

NAB signs long-term cloud agreement with AWS

National Australia Bank (NAB) has expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), signing a new “multimillion dollar” long-term cloud agreement.

The bank, which has now worked with AWS since 2013, says the move is part of its “ambitious multi-cloud approach” and will enable the firm to “accelerate the migration of key mission-critical workloads to AWS”.

The deal will also see NAB deploy new AWS services such as AWS Graviton to boost cloud performance. The bank is also in the process of rolling out AWS’ cloud contact center that offers Amazon Connect.

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The tide to buy financing options for SME financing

UK commercial banking platform Tide is to acquire Funding Options, a UK marketplace for small business funding, for an undisclosed sum.

The deal will see Tide’s 475,000 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers gain access to more credit options in the near future, gaining access to Funding Options’ panel of more than 120 lenders.

Funding Options will function as a separate brand within Tide, while Tide’s existing credit brokerage business will be merged with Funding Options and led by Funding Options CEO Simon Cureton. The firm currently has £1bn of demand for business finance from SMEs every month.

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HSBC will sell its Canada business to Royal Bank of Canada for $10 billion

HSBC to sell its Canada business to RBC

HSBC is set to sell its banking operations in Canada to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for a cash consideration of $10.1 billion, subject to regulatory and regulatory approvals.

RBC will acquire 100% of the issued common capital of HSBC Canada. The firm will also purchase all preferred shares and the outstanding subordinated debt issued by HSBC Canada and held by HSBC Group for an additional $1.5 billion.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

“We decided to sell following a thorough review of the business, which assessed its relative market position in the Canadian market and its strategic fit within the HSBC portfolio, and concluded that there was significant value upside in selling the business,” explains Noel Quinn, CEO of HSBC Group.

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