In a shock announcement this morning, Noel Quinn announced that he is drawing the curtain on a nearly four-decade career at HSBC. So, who are the leading contenders to succeed him as chief executive of Europe’s largest bank?
Whoever takes on the job can expect a bumper salary. Quinn was the only Big Four UK bank boss to see a pay rise for his performance in 2023, with his remuneration nearly doubling to £10.6m after HSBC reported record profits on the back of global interest rate hikes.
HSBC has granted him “good leaver” status, meaning Quinn is still entitled to his deferred awards, on the condition that he does not assume a position within a specified rival firm after he retires.
Quinn said his decision came after a period of reflection last Christmas and the desire for a better balance between his work and personal life.
“Doing this job, you have to give 100 per cent – if not 120 per cent – of your energy, your mindset your time to the role,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “You can keep doing that, but that doesn’t necessarily achieve the balance in life that I wanted.”
Quinn called his five years as CEO “intense”. His tenure has seen an improvement in the bank’s share price and profitability as it exited non-core markets and cut tens of thousands of jobs.
However, Quinn has been challenged with steering HSBC through the Covid-19 pandemic, a economic slowdown in its key Chinese market and a challenge from its largest shareholder, Ping An, to carve out the bank’s Asia business.
HSBC’s chair, Mark Tucker, is now looking for his third CEO. He aims to finish the search by the second half of 2024. Meanwhile, Quinn will remain in his role for up to a year until a successor is found.
While the bank has said it is considering both internal and external candidates, it has traditionally promoted long-serving veterans to the position. A few of the firm’s own bankers immediately stand out.
Georges Elhedery
The leading internal candidate for Quinn’s job is 50-year-old Georges Elhedery.
The Lebanon-born trader, rumoured to be fluent in five languages, was promoted to become the group’s finance chief last January following a six-month sabbatical, before which he was HSBC’s co-head of global banking and markets.
Quinn himself has hinted that Elhedery is the heir apparent, saying in 2022 that his promotion was part of HSBC’s long-term succession plans.
“My ambition is to make sure there are no less than three and ideally four to five potential succession options that the board could consider within HSBC,” he said.
Elhedery received a 76.75 per cent rating on his bonus scorecard in 2023, higher than Quinn’s 75.93 per cent. He landed a £1.3m bonus for the year, bringing his total pay package to £3.3m.
Other internal contenders mooted in recent years include Nuno Matos, head of HSBC’s wealth and personal banking unit, Barry O’Byrne, head of commercial banking, and Colin Bell, CEO of the bank’s European business.
Matos and O’Byrne both relocated to Hong Kong in 2021, while Elhedery remains based in London with Quinn. As HSBC pivots to focus more on Asia, investors may see experience working in the continent as increasingly important for the group chief.
However, Elhedery stands out as the most experienced. His 19 years at the bank compare to nine for Matos, eight for Bell and seven for O’Byrne.
Ian Stuart
Another option could be Ian Stuart, who was appointed as the first chief executive of HSBC’s ring-fenced UK bank in 2017. He originally joined the firm in 2014 to head up its commercial banking arm in the UK and Europe.
Stuart, 60, has overseen bumper earnings at HSBC UK, which were helped by higher interest rates and a landmark deal credited with rescuing many British start-ups.
Last year saw the unit’s pretax profit swell 84 per cent to $8.3bn (£6.6bn), which included a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) provisional gain on its acquisition of Silicon Valley Bank UK following the failure of its US parent last March.
Stuart left school at 16 and went straight into banking, initially as a cashier at a branch. Before joining HSBC, he led Barclays’ corporate banking business for six years and served for 22 years at the Royal Bank of Scotland – now Natwest.
When the top job at the latter firm became available in 2019, Stuart was reportedly approached by the bank, although it eventually appointed Dame Alison Rose.