People Moves
HSBC's Quinn Now Permanent Chief Executive

The man who has been the interim CEO since last summer is now in the role full-time. His big task is to restructure and reduce certain risks against a backdrop of volatile markets.
This week, HSBC announced
that Noel Quinn is to become the permanent chief executive,
having been the interim boss since John Flint stood down last
August. Quinn has already signalled his ambition to restructure
one of the world’s largest banks with a series of
changes.
But that task, which involves
shrinking headcount and cutting exposures in parts of its
operations, became much harder after equity markets tanked when
the COVID-19 pandemic broke. Since the start of January, the MSCI
World Index of shares of developed countries, has fallen by 24.6
per cent (in dollars). HSBC, like a lot of its peers, has
de-risked part of its balance sheet and bolstered capital buffers
since the 2008 crash but, even so, the fast market moves will be
testing.
In recent weeks Quinn and his colleagues have unveiled a package
of restructuring moves, concerned that performance in some
business areas where return on equity was not matching the cost
of capital, was unacceptable. Investment banking exposures in
Europe and the US are being trimmed; the global private bank has
been folded into a new structure to simplify its
operations.
Whatever lies in store, the Hong Kong/UK-listed bank is certainly
fulsome about Quinn.
“Noel has proven to be the outstanding candidate to take on a
role permanently that he has performed impressively on an interim
basis since August 2019. He is a strong and proven leader with
extensive global banking expertise, deep client relationships and
the energy and skill to drive the business forward at pace. In
the last few months Noel has worked closely with the board to
agree the key actions required to build and enhance performance
on a sustainable basis. He has shown a great understanding of
HSBC, the challenges we face and the significant opportunities
for growth that lie ahead.”