HSBC picks Flint as its next CE
• New CEO has good understanding of bank’s heritage
HSBC has chosen John Flint as its next CE, it said on Thursday, with its recently hired chairman opting for an insider to pursue a turnaround at Europe’s biggest bank.
HSBC has chosen John Flint as its next CEO, the bank said on Thursday, with its recently hired chairman opting for an insider to pursue a turnaround at Europe’s biggest bank.
Flint, who runs HSBC’s retail and wealth management business, will take over as CEO in February 2018, when Stuart Gulliver, 58, retires after seven years in the job.
The appointment is the first major decision taken by former AIA Group chief Mark Tucker, who joined HSBC on October 1 as its first externally appointed chairman.
Flint, who is not related to Tucker’s predecessor Douglas Flint, is viewed by other HSBC executives as the safe option, having worked at the bank in various posts since 1989.
During his career at HSBC, Flint, 49, has worked across most of its businesses and spent his first 14 years in Asia, giving him the breadth of experience seen as vital for the CEO role.
“He has a great understanding and regard for HSBC’s heritage, and the passion to build the bank for the next generation,” Tucker said in a statement.
Flint emerged as the forerunner as expectations HSBC could appoint its first external CEO in its 150-year history waned. Its share price ticked up modestly after the announcement.
“If they went with an external chairman and an external CEO, that’s probably a little bit too much and that might cause a bit of uncertainty in the markets as to HSBC’s direction and footprint going forward,” said Benjamin Quinlan, CEO of Hong Kong financial services consultancy Quinlan & Associates.
Flint’s main task will be to grow revenue across HSBC’s businesses, as it seeks to grow profit again following a period of restructuring after the 2008-09 financial crisis.
HSBC’s previous management duo of Gulliver and Douglas Flint spent the years since their appointment in 2010 shrinking HSBC, after a period of empire-building in the run-up to the 2008 global financial crisis left the bank overextended.
In July, HSBC announced its third share buyback in a year and rising profit, in what are signs of its turnaround.
But the bank still faces a tough challenge to meet its longterm goal of making a better than 10% return on equity.
In August last year, HSBC abandoned a timetable for achieving that target, as increased regulatory requirements on capital, low interest rates and rising competition from low-cost competitors pressured lenders’ profits worldwide.
Investors will watch closely to see whether Flint continues his predecessor’s shift towards the bank’s second home market of Asia. HSBC said in 2015 it would hire 4,000 staff and lend more in China’s southern Pearl River Delta region, a plan that has since encountered some setbacks as the country’s growth pace slowed.
It has also lost market share in its Asian life insurance business, a trend that analysts expect the bank’s new chairman to try to reverse given his background in the industry.
Flint spent much of his early career in Asia and has done stints in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and India as well as the US and Britain.
HSBC said Flint will be paid a base salary of £1.2m a year as well as a fixed pay allowance of £1.7m.
BANK FACES TOUGH CHALLENGE TO MEET ITS LONG-TERM GOAL OF BETTER THAN 10% RETURN ON EQUITY