Pick five of this week’s top news stories from the world of finance and technology.
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken lays off 30% of its staff to survive the crypto winter.

Kraken lays off 1,100 employees
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken plans to lay off 30% of its workforce, or 1,100 employees, to “adapt to current market conditions.”
In a post on the company’s blog, co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell said the job cuts would put the company’s headcount “back to where it was just 12 months ago” after a period of rapid growth. long-term business.”
Powell said all affected employees have been notified and will receive “comprehensive support as they transition out of the company.”
Kraken recently joined a growing list of companies to reduce the size of their workforce.
Click here for details
HSBC UK to close 114 bank branches next year
HSBC has announced that it will close 114 bank branches across the UK from April 2023.
Over the past five years, patrons’ use of the branch network has decreased by 65%, and 74% of closed branches said their footprint had decreased by “at least 50%.”
HSBC said: “Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the decline in branch usage has accelerated so much that some branches are closed, serving fewer than 250 customers per week.” said.
As part of its New Year’s branch network review, HSBC said it plans to expand the capabilities of its digital banking services and invest “tens of millions of pounds” in updating and improving its remaining branch network.
Click here for details
National Australia Bank expands AWS collaboration with ‘multi-million dollar’ cloud contract

NAB Signs Long-Term Cloud Agreement with AWS
National Australia Bank (NAB) has expanded its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), signing a new multi-million dollar long-term cloud contract.
The bank, which has been working with AWS since 2013, said the move is part of an “ambitious multi-cloud approach” and that the company will “accelerate the migration of key critical workloads to AWS.” said it would allow
The deal also sees NAB deploy new AWS services such as AWS Graviton to improve cloud performance. The bank is currently rolling out a cloud contact center on AWS powered by Amazon Connect.
Click here for details
The trend to acquire financing options in the SME finance market
UK-based business banking platform Tide plans to acquire Funding Options, the UK small business finance marketplace, for an undisclosed amount.
The deal will give Tide’s 475,000 small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers access to more credit options in the near future, as well as access to Funding Options’ panel of over 120 lender partners. .
Funding Options will operate as a separate brand within Tide and Tide’s existing credit brokerage business will be integrated into Funding Options, led by Funding Options CEO Simon Cureton. The company currently boasts 1 billion worth of business financing demand from SMEs each month.
Click here for details
HSBC sells Canadian operations to Royal Bank of Canada for $10 billion

HSBC sells Canadian operations to RBC
HSBC intends to sell its Canadian banking operations to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for a cash consideration of $10.1 billion, subject to regulatory and governmental approvals.
RBC will acquire 100% of the outstanding common stock of HSBC Canada. The company will also purchase all preferred stock and subordinated notes issued by HSBC Canada and held by the HSBC Group for an additional $1.5 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2023.
Noel Quinn said: , CEO of HSBC Group.
Click here for details