File photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

The London-headquartered HSBC Holdings Plc. plans to axe up to 10,000 jobs in an effort to cut costs, according to media reports on Sunday.

The layoffs account more than 4 percent of the banking titan's workforce, said the Financial Times.

According to the bank's 2019 interim report, the group had over 237,000 full-time employees at the end of June 2019.

The news comes a month after HSBC Chief Executive Officer John Flint surprisingly stepped down in August as the bank deemed a change necessary at the top to tackle an increasingly complex and challenging global environment.

The paper said the latest layoffs are part of the saving costs plan promoted by HSBC's interim CEO Noel Quinn, who has taken over Flint's role until a successor is appointed, as the lender struggles to deal with economic uncertainties across the world, including Brexit, trade disputes and falling interest rates.

In August, HSBC announced a rising profit in the first half of the year, with reported profit before tax up 15.8 percent to 12.4 billion U.S. dollars and reported operating expenses down 2.3 percent. However, it also expressed concerns on the 2020 outlook citing global headwinds.

HSBC also said that it would axe roughly 4,000 jobs, mostly management posts, in August reports.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn