A total of 130 jobs will be cut by HSBC at its Scottish call centres as part of a global restructuring process.

The bank confirmed on Thursday that 61 positions are to go in Edinburgh and 69 in Hamilton, which includes staff from its subsidiary company First Direct as well as HSBC.

The bulk of posts to be shed will be senior and middle management. None of the staff in the ten bank branches north of the border will be affected.

The announcement explained that a total of 30,000 roles within the bank would be lost worldwide in a bid to save $3.5bn.

More than 2200 people will leave the company in the UK with a reduction of more than 3000 roles.

The move will see the streamlining of HSBC’s IT requirements in a bid to reduce costs while improving customer service.

All aspects of the bank’s business will be affected and most UK regions will be affected in some way.

Joe Garner, head of the UK bank, said: "I feel the deepest sympathy for those colleagues who are affected by these changes and would like to stress that we will be doing everything we possibly can to support them over the coming months. 

“Our immediate focus is to try to help those colleagues impacted to find alternative roles within the bank.  

“We have tried to keep the number of people who will be leaving the bank to a minimum. 

“Additionally, we have gone to great lengths to maintain full support for our customers - with only a small proportion of frontline customer service colleagues being impacted by these changes.”