HSBC Braces for Huge Overhaul as Quinn’s Future in Balance
- Interim CEO’s bid to stay permanently looks more uncertain
- Bank is said to consider trading desk cuts; French sale nears
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From its headquarters near the Thames to its Asian hub by the South China Sea, HSBC Holdings Plc is abuzz.
Trading desks and back offices are bracing for scenarios that could see the announcement of another reshuffle of senior management, a surprise new chief executive, withdrawals from businesses and job reductions across the globe. It will be the London-based lender’s third major overhaul in a decade, and it will be announced Tuesday.
“The current strategy is in no man’s land,” said Lutz Roehmeyer, chief investment officer at Capitulum Asset Management in Berlin, which holds HSBC shares and has been cutting its exposure. “HSBC should stop being so prudent, take risk and expand -- or otherwise shrink, and shrink fast.”