HSBC merges commercial, investment banking units

HSBC Holdings said on Tuesday it would combine some of its commercial and investment banking operations in a major overhaul under new CEO Georges Elhedery, which will see it cut costs while trying to improve returns.

A new leadership structure, which includes the appointment of Pam Kaur as the lender's first female chief financial officer, would "unleash our full potential and drive success into the future," Elhedery said in a memo to staff.

The group is carving up its operations into four business lines, namely UK, Hong Kong, corporate and institutional banking, and wealth banking.

The overhaul sees Elhedery tackle one of HSBC's most intractable problems.

Its commercial bank, which serves the lender's more than 1.2 million business customers from startups to major corporations, has long held the potential to turbocharge profit if those customers could be persuaded to buy more products.

Executives in that division, however, have sought to protect their clients from cross-selling efforts by investment bankers in HSBC's Global Banking division, sources at the bank have previously said.

By combining the two divisions - except in Hong Kong and the UK - into the new corporate and institutional division, Elhedery hopes to drive closer cooperation and deliver on the lender's recent publicly stated focus to cross-sell more products to internationally focused customers.

HSBC did not say what the projected cost savings might be or indicate how many jobs would be affected, but more details could emerge when the bank reports third-quarter results on Oct. 29.

The new corporate and institutional banking unit will house a newly combined commercial banking and global banking and markets business, and Western wholesale banking businesses, including Europe and the Americas.

HSBC's shares were little changed in Hong Kong trade, down just 0.1 percent. The reaction in London was similarly muted, with the stock down 0.4 percent in line with the FTSE 100 index.

"The announcement today is just moving around different parts of the group, with no change to the big picture," Ben Toms, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said.

"The real question that the market is waiting to hear about, given that the bank is searching to cut costs to offset topline pressure, is which parts of that Group could be next on the chopping block, and how much will this restructuring cost the bank?"

As well as the structural overhaul, HSBC announced a raft of senior management changes.

Kaur, 60, takes over as CFO having served as HSBC's chief risk and compliance officer. She joined the bank in April 2013 as group head of internal audit.

In other key management changes, Greg Guyett, CEO Global Banking and Markets, will assume a newly created role of Chair, Strategic Clients Group.

The lender's Europe head Colin Bell, once seen as a potential candidate for the CEO role, is leaving the bank, an internal memo said, as is Middle East head Stephen Moss.

HSBC, which employs about 214,000 people globally, has been removing duplicate roles for years and reducing its businesses in Western markets such as the United States, France and Canada as it focuses on Asia and markets where it has scale.