Chairman Gary Tse stressed that the staff cuts were purely in response to the bank's recent account review, which saw Leo Burnett selected as agency of record. He added that many of the staff working on the Hang Seng business were particularly specialised for the banking sector.
"That is a basic part of the industry, particularly because of the loss of Hang Seng Bank, which is a substantial piece of business," explained Tse. "Also the people we had were very specialised in banking. Hang Seng was an extremely labour-intensive account - with that gone, we need to restructure the agency operation."
Of the 21, most were below mid-level, and included administrative, account and creative functions. Tse confirmed that second-tier agency Interface had not suffered significant layoffs.
"The important thing is we have to make sure it will not weaken the agency going forward," added Tse. "This is something we need to do, and it's not just to cut costs. In particular, we are looking into next year, and trying to make it more efficient."