HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC (HSBA.L) will shed almost 50,000 jobs and take an ax to its investment bank, cutting the assets of Europe’s biggest lender by a quarter in a bid to simplify and improve its sluggish performance. The bank said on Tuesday about half the staff cuts will come from the sale of businesses in Brazil and Turkey. The cuts will leave HSBC with about 208,000 full-time equivalent staff by 2017, down from 295,000 at the end of 2010 and 258,000 at the end of 2014, although the bank said it will be hiring in growth businesses and its compliance division.