HSBC names Asia country, banking heads in CEO’s major revamp

HSBC Holdings Plc gave country heads in some smaller Asian markets additional responsibilities as the lender streamlines and removes management layers.

Peter Kim was appointed head of banking on top of his chief executive officer role in Korea, effective March 1, while Tim Evans will fill the same double role in Vietnam, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. A spokesman for the bank confirmed the content of the memo.

“The changes will create a simple organization that will be better placed to deliver best-in-class service to our customers and are designed to accelerate the execution of our strategic objectives,” the spokesman said.


Omar Siddiq, Adam Chen and Giorgio Gamba will take on dual roles in Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, respectively. Some commercial and global banking staff applied for roles and lost out, according to people familiar with the matter.

HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery, who took over last year, is enacting sweeping changes at the Asia-focused lender to reduce costs, complexity and job duplication. He has so far combined the commercial banking division with its global banking and markets unit and is pulling out of some investment banking in Europe and the Americas.

The lender late last year asked hundreds of managers to reapply for jobs in the firm’s newly formed corporate and institutional banking division. HSBC is also phasing out its use of the general manager titles that it gave to some of its most senior staff and will instead give those employees managing director titles, a common rank at many major financial services businesses, people familiar with the moves have said.

The bank will also appoint a new head of banking, international markets to oversee Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mauritius, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, the memo said.

In the “priority markets” of China, India and Singapore, HSBC named Zhenyi Tang, Ajay Sharma and Gilbert Ng as heads of banking, it said.