Banking | HSBC’s top executives following the money prepare Asia moves

HSBC Holdings Plc is considering the return of some global leaders to the bank’s original hometown, reinforcing Asia’s role as its center of gravity.
A cadre of senior executives is set to relocate in coming months to Hong Kong from HSBC’s Canary Wharf headquarters, say people familiar with the plans, as Europe’s biggest bank pares its global ambitions.
Chief Executive Officer Noel Quinn will begin marketing what’s known internally as the “pivot to Asia” on Tuesday when he announces 2020 earnings. Moving the trio – Nuno Matos, chief executive of wealth and personal banking; Greg Guyett, co-head of global banking and markets, and Barry O’Byrne, chief executive of global commercial banking – would mean businesses responsible in 2019 for 95% of net revenue will be run out of Hong Kong.
Other roles are also being reshuffled as part of the latest strategy, according to an announcement yesterday. Chief Financial Officer Ewen Stevenson will take on responsibility for the bank’s transformation agenda and mergers and acquisitions strategy. Michael Roberts, head of its North American business, will now lead its businesses in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
Colin Bell, group head of compliance, will become CEO of HSBC Europe and HSBC Bank Plc, the U.K. non-ring-fenced unit. Stephen Moss, currently head of Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, Latin America, and Canada, will relocate from London to Dubai to head the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
HSBC will also appoint Hong Kong-based executive Kee Joo Wong to run the bank’s operations in Singapore, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. Wong, the Asia-Pacific head of global liquidity and cash management, will replace Tony Cripps, who was tapped to run the lender’s Saudi British Bank.
The focus on Asia involves more than economics. China’s crackdown on Hong Kong has increasingly forced HSBC to accept criticism in the U.S. and U.K. as a cost of doing business. Quinn was summoned to testify to British lawmakers this month over the lender’s decision to close the accounts of an exiled Hong Kong democracy activist.
The coming reset comes just 12 months after an overhaul that called for cutting 35,000 jobs, about 15% of the total, over three years. But Chairman Mark Tucker told the Asian Financial Forum conference in January that the pandemic has upended those plans. “Economic realities mean that what we were planning to do in February we need to be even more urgent in doing,” Tucker said.
HSBC will probably report pretax adjusted profits fell to $11.7 billion in 2020, close to half of 2019, largely driven by soaring bad debt charges amid the pandemic, according to the average of 19 forecasts on the bank’s website. Its shares, which tumbled last year, have gained about 11% so far in 2021, though they have lagged behind rivals such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Banco Santander SA.
Seeking avenues for growth, Quinn said the bank wants to become a “market leader” in wealth management. It’s now a relative minnow in the business compared to some of its international peers. While HSBC’s private bank manages less than $400 billion of client assets, UBS Group AG, the world’s largest wealth manager, looks after customer funds totaling about $2.6 trillion.
Founded in 1865 as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp., HSBC moved its base to London in 1993 after buying Midland Bank in the run-up to the colony’s 1997 return to China. MDT/Bloomberg