HSBC promotes CFO Elhedery to chief executive, replacing Quinn who retires in September

HSBC promoted its chief financial officer Georges Elhedery as the chief executive of Europe's largest bank to replace Noel Quinn as the current CEO retires on September 1.

Elhedery, 50, joined the London-based bank in 2005, according to a biography on the bank's website. He previously held the role of co-CEO of HSBC's global banking and markets division before being appointed as the CFO of the bank in January 2023.

Quinn announced his retirement in April, after five years on the job, that involved pushing HSBC to resume paying dividends to its most important customers amid a shareholders' revolt led by its biggest stakeholder.

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"I'm pleased with our start to 2024," Quinn said after announcing the bank's second-highest quarterly profit in five years. "We completed the sale of our Canada business and agreed the sale of our Argentina business, both of which allow us to focus on markets with higher value international opportunities."

HSBC, which traces its roots to Hong Kong and Shanghai nearly two centuries ago, generates much of its revenue in Asia.

The lender announced a special dividend of US$0.21 per share in the first half of this year after completing the sale of its Canadian business. Ping An, HSBC's largest shareholder, lodged a protest vote against Quinn's leadership at a general shareholder meeting on May 3, according to a Bloomberg report.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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