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HSBC
BusinessBanking & Finance

Cadre of senior HSBC executives set to relocate to Hong Kong as part of bank’s ‘pivot to Asia’, sources say

  • Nuno Matos, Greg Guyett and Barry O’Byrne will move to Asia in the coming months, say sources
  • HSBC CEO Noel Quinn will announce the move when the full-year earnings are released on Tuesday

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HSBC is likely report pre-tax adjusted profits of US$11.7 billion in 2020, close to half of 2019, according to the average of 19 forecasts. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg

HSBC Holdings is considering the return of some global leaders to the bank’s original hometown, reinforcing Asia’s role as its centre 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 is 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 per cent of net revenue will be run out of Hong Kong.

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The coming reset comes just 12 months after an overhaul that called for cutting 35,000 jobs, about 15 per cent 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.

02:05

HSBC sees second-quarter profits plunge by 82 per cent thanks to coronavirus

HSBC sees second-quarter profits plunge by 82 per cent thanks to coronavirus
HSBC will probably report pre-tax adjusted profits fell to US$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 per cent so far in 2021, though they have lagged rivals such as JPMorgan Chase and Banco Santander.
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“The potential at HSBC is from simplification, de-duplication, and increased digitisation,” said Edward Firth, a banking analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “That, to me, is the opportunity, rather more than any ‘pivot’ to Asia or some other such strategic reset.”

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