Brobdingnagian brawl

23 September 2010 By Peter Thal Larsen Follow @Peter_TL

With CEO Michael Geoghegan following the chairman out the door, HSBC is fortunate Stuart Gulliver and Douglas Flint can step in. But both are untested and the row over succession has stained the bank s reputation. The board needs to make sure it can t happen again.

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HSBC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan is to step down and be replaced by Stuart Gulliver, the head of its investment banking arm, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Douglas Flint, the bank's finance director, is set to take over as chairman, replacing Stephen Green, who is leaving at the end of the year to become Britain's trade and investment minister.

The appointments of Gulliver and Flint are subject to approval by Britain's Financial Services Authority, and by HSBC's board of directors, which is due to meet on Sept. 29.

Geoghegan had threatened to quit after being told last week that the board was not ready to give him the chairmanship, the Financial Times reported earlier this week. The bank dismissed that report as nonsense.

The changes at the top of Europe's biggest bank come after two weeks of wrangling, initially over the chairman's job. HSBC has in the past prided itself on its succession strategy, and has a history of promoting its CEO to the chairmanship.

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