HSBC Holdings plc is a multinational baking and financial services company in the United Kingdom. There are four business groups in which it is organized: Commercial Banking, Global Banking and Markets, Personal Financial Services, and Global Private Banking. In 2011, Forbes magazine named it the world’s second-largest banking and financial services group as well as the second-largest public company.

It was on this day, August 1, 2011, that the HSBC bank announced cuts to 5,000 jobs, as well as an additional 25,000 in 2013. CEO Stuart Gulliver planned to cut $3.5 billion in costs in two years, which led to the dire announcement. HSBC also decided it would close 13 of its branches in Connecticut and New Jersey in 2012 as to align their U.S. business with their “global network and meet the local and international needs of domestic and overseas clients.”

HSBC also announced in September of 2011 their desire to sell its general insurance business for a near $1 billion. The company already agreed to sell its credit card business to Capital One Financial Corp. for $2.6 billion earlier that year, and is set on carrying out Gulliver’s plan to divest a few of its assets.