HSBC will strip out thousands of jobs across its global business in an effort to keep a rein on costs following the surprise departure of chief executive John Flint after only 18 months in the role.

Ewen Stevenson, the bank’s finance director, said on Monday that HSBC was looking to cut 2% of its workforce, mostly from senior roles. He said the redundancies would affect staff across business lines and reduce the bank’s wage bill by 4%. The bank employs around 235,000 people.