HSBC shaved top management roles at its investment banking arm amidst a global job cut freeze.
The reshuffle resulted in the removal of regional head roles for HSBC’s global banking & markets (GBM) business, according to a «Reuters» report.
Asia Pacific GBM head Gordon French will take a six-month sabbatical; Europe GBM head Thierry Roland will shift to lead a unit focus on asset disposals; and GBM chief operating officer Andre Cronje will leave the bank with no successor to his role. Americas GBM head Andre Brandao will remain on board till the end of the year to await further announcement.
The moves occur amidst a firing freeze which was announced in March with the bank committing to put a hold on «vast majority of redundancies» associated with its plan to ax 35,000 jobs worldwide.
Successors
Succeeding French and Roland will be former China CEO David Liao and Philippe Henry, who will also concurrently lead Middle East and Africa. Support functions of both HSBC’s GBM business and its commercial banking business will be merged into a single back office unit, the report added.
After just securing the top role, HSBC CEO Noel Quinn has faced little good news to combine with the broader headwinds faced by all globally. In Hong Kong, the bank has had to dealt with social unrest and, most recently, an ongoing dispute with shareholders demanding dividend payouts (though they have no legal case). And in Singapore, the bank was reported to have the largest exposure amongst 23 lenders in the recent Hin Leong credit fallout.
