At a Windsor retreat for senior HSBC staff in early December, chief govt Noel Quinn made it clear he had no intention to depart the financial institution, three individuals who attended informed the Financial Times.
Yet throughout the Christmas break simply weeks later, Quinn had decided to retire after 5 years within the position.
The sudden announcement on Tuesday that the 62-year-old was stepping down has not solely kick-started a seek for a brand new chief of Europe’s largest financial institution but in addition set off hypothesis about his resolution to surrender the highest job.
Quinn blamed the depth of a place that has seen him criss-cross between London, Hong Kong, mainland China, New York and the Middle East over the previous 5 years. But folks contained in the financial institution have had a troublesome time squaring statements from Quinn that he would keep for just a few extra years with the abrupt announcement he’s leaving.
“Everyone is still in a state of shock,” mentioned one HSBC banker. Another mentioned staff had been “blindsided” by the choice.
HSBC declined to remark additional on Quinn’s departure.
Inside HSBC headquarters, the narrative is that it was unimaginable for each Quinn and group chair Mark Tucker to proceed of their roles.
Quinn’s departure has been framed as a timing concern, with each the chief govt and chair arising in opposition to a three-year deadline: Quinn’s probably retirement at about age 65 and Tucker’s nine-year really useful time period restrict for non-executive administrators.
This may have put HSBC within the untenable place of getting its two most necessary roles vacant on the identical time, the folks mentioned — with Tucker eager to oversee the transition to a brand new CEO.
One one that has labored carefully with each males mentioned Quinn’s resolution to give up “is hallmark Tucker”, including that if there needed to be a selection over who would keep, it was at all times going to be Tucker.
Sam Johar, chair of board advisory group Buchanan Harvey, mentioned: “Mark Tucker can’t stay beyond 2026, so the board had to work out who was going first: Tucker or Quinn. This way, Mark has time to oversee Quinn’s successor settling into the job.”
Tucker is now on the hunt for his fourth chief govt in lower than a decade. As the primary outsider to steer HSBC, he has constructed a repute as a ruthless and decisive chair.
Before he was put in in 2017, Tucker had already determined who ought to substitute veteran Stuart Gulliver. However, his selection of John Flint, head of the financial institution’s retail banking and wealth administration enterprise, proved a mis-step. Within 18 months, Tucker wielded the axe following frequent clashes between the pair.
Tucker’s resolution to advertise Quinn on a short lived foundation in August 2019 was made everlasting seven months later after UniCredit’s then-chief govt Jean Pierre Mustier dominated himself out.
“He’s a very dominant chair,” mentioned an individual who is aware of Tucker effectively. “He’s not an easy person to work with, but it is better to have a very clever person who is hard to deal with as a chair than a not so clever person who is a pushover.”
Quinn mentioned on Tuesday he was “ready for a change” however would stay chief govt till a successor is discovered and has agreed to be obtainable via to the tip of his 12-month discover interval. He mentioned he informed Tucker, who is predicated on the east coast of the US, of his intention to depart earlier this month.
![Noel Quinn, chief executive of HSBC Holdings, walks through the Blue Zone on the opening day of the COP28 climate conference at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on November 30 2023](https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2F530b6878-e78e-48d9-9799-40baa8f3b12c.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1)
An HSBC lifer, Quinn joined the lender in 1987 by way of a subsidiary of Midland Bank, which HSBC purchased in full 5 years later. The chartered accountant labored up via the group’s company banking division, together with a stint in Hong Kong.
With a Birmingham accent and a down-to-earth method, Quinn is in style among the many financial institution’s rank and file and was usually seen strolling the ground on Friday afternoon when he ran the industrial financial institution.
“At its core this [HSBC] is a commercial bank. And he was the quintessential commercial banker,” mentioned an HSBC banker.
At a lunch with HSBC bankers and purchasers in New York final week, Quinn mentioned that one of the best job he had within the trade was when he was coping with purchasers and lamented the grind of the fixed governance and oversight points which are a part of operating a worldwide financial institution.
His tenure as chief govt was marked by two main occasions: the coronavirus pandemic and a name from HSBC’s largest shareholder, Ping An, to separate up the 159-year-old lender and record its Asia enterprise in Hong Kong. He steered the financial institution via each crises, and on Tuesday shares within the lender closed at their highest stage since 2018.
“During [Quinn’s] tenure as CEO he has simplified the business . . . successfully navigated the pandemic and ongoing geopolitical tensions, and managed to achieve record profits, the strongest return in a decade and highest dividend since 2008,” mentioned Citigroup analyst Andrew Coombs.
But the brand new chief govt will take the highest job at a time when geopolitics looms significantly giant, with renewed tensions between Beijing and Washington and elections in each the UK and US.
HSBC has a troublesome sufficient process conserving each UK regulators and its Hong Kong shareholder base onside, a pressure dropped at a head throughout the pandemic when the Bank of England blocked it from paying dividends.
It additionally relies upon closely on its US greenback clearing licence, with out which giant elements of the enterprise can’t function. Quinn was resulting from attend a HSBC Wealth Management occasion in New York final week however ended up pulling out resulting from an undisclosed last-minute pressing matter.
The process is selecting a frontrunner who can preserve good relations with each China and the west, an more and more troublesome endeavour that had began to grate on Quinn, in keeping with two individuals who labored with him.
“It’s part and parcel of running HSBC,” a prime 10 shareholder within the financial institution mentioned in regards to the process of juggling international tensions. “HSBC is always exposed to geopolitical risk.”
Within the financial institution, the frontrunner to succeed Quinn is Georges Elhedery, whose promotion to chief monetary officer in late 2022 instantly solid him as inheritor obvious. Elhedery’s ascent to chief govt so quickly after his appointment to the C-suite would come as one thing of a shock, nevertheless, due to the circumstances of his predecessor Ewen Stevenson’s exit.
The New Zealander’s resolution to depart the financial institution after just below 4 years shocked buyers. People with data of his resolution mentioned Stevenson had aspirations of taking the chief govt position, but it surely had been made clear that Quinn would keep in place for a number of extra years.
Elhedery faces stiff competitors from different inside contenders, together with Greg Guyett, chief govt of world banking and markets, and Nuno Matos, CEO of wealth and private banking.
As an outsider with a background at Prudential and AIA himself, Tucker may additionally take the novel step of trying outdoors the financial institution’s ranks for Quinn’s alternative. There are former HSBC bankers scattered via the most important international banks and asset managers: not least Charlie Nunn, Lloyds Banking Group’s chief govt.
“Whomever comes in, it’s not going to result in a massive strategic hiatus,” mentioned the highest 10 shareholder.
“When rates are nicely positive like they are now, it’s a huge support to your profitability and returns — the new CEO will have an easier job coming in than Noel did.”
Additional reporting by Harriet Agnew in London