Hard as Flint

23 September 2010 By Peter Thal Larsen Follow @Peter_TL

The latest idea to resolve the impasse over who should lead the bank is Douglas Flint, the finance director. Though the mess is embarrassing, HSBC should take time to consider external candidates. Then it must lay down strict guidelines to ensure the fiasco doesn’t happen again.

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HSBC's board of directors is expected to choose a new chairman at a board meeting on Sept. 29.

Douglas Flint, the bank's finance director, has emerged as a possible compromise candidate to succeed Stephen Green, who is leaving to become UK trade minister, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 23.

On Sept. 22, HSBC dismissed as "nonsense" a Financial Times report that chief executive Michael Geoghegan had threatened to resign unless he was given the chairman's job. "The suggestion is offensive to Mike and to the company," HSBC said.

Some HSBC directors are in favour of promoting Geoghegan, while others would prefer to appoint John Thornton, the former Goldman Sachs executive who is already an HSBC nonexecutive director, as chairman of the bank.

Simon Robertson, HSBC's senior independent nonexecutive director, has also been mentioned as a compromise candidate. However, it is unclear whether Robertson would be able to combine the HSBC job with his current role as chairman of RollsRoyce.

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