It’s been a pretty awful year for HSBC, and 2019 is not ending on a high. News has surfaced that long-serving head of its global banking and markets (GBM) division, Samir Assaf, is to be replaced.
No official announcement has been made, and yet the lack of denials from the bank confirm the story to be true.
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| Samir Assaf |
It has caught almost everyone on the hop. Only a very few people inside the bank know that discussions are even taking place. The last thing HSBC needs is a leak at the top. Its management has plenty else to worry about.
Little more than two years ago Assaf was seen as a potential successor as chief executive to Stuart Gulliver. He reportedly had some big names among the old guard backing his candidacy. He lost out to John Flint, who was unceremoniously jettisoned after 18 months in the job. At least Assaf is likely to be moved to an unspecified advisory role.
His looming job-downsizing creates quite a mess for HSBC. It currently has an interim CEO, Noel Quinn, parachuted in from his role running the bank’s important commercial banking business (CMB).