HSBC Names Former U.S. Anti-Terror Official Chief Legal Officer

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) hired former U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, the department’s top official for fighting terrorist funding, as chief legal officer.

Levey, 48, will work with Richard Bennett, group general counsel, who will retire at the end of this year after more than 33 years at the lender, London-based HSBC said in a statement today. Levey, who resigned his government post of undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence a year ago, will report to Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver.

“His experience dealing with international financial and legal issues is highly relevant to a global bank such as HSBC,” Gulliver said in today’s statement.

He headed an office that oversees the Treasury’s efforts to stop illicit international funding and enforces economic and trade sanctions. During a tenure that spanned both the Bush and Obama administrations, Levey helped lead the American effort to staunch the flow of money intended to help al-Qaeda and regimes in Iran and North Korea.

To contact the reporter on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net