HSBC Holdings has named a new CEO of its U.S. operations, as its recently appointed group CEO, Georges Elhedery, continues to put his mark on the global bank.
The new U.S. leader, Lisa McGeough, will be moving from London to New York, swapping home bases with Michael Roberts, whom she’s succeeding in the U.S. role.
HSBC said in October that Roberts would become the global head of corporate and institutional banking for HSBC, moving from New York to London. McGeough, who will be helming a geography that has leaned more heavily on corporate and investment banking since HSBC sold its U.S. retail business nearly three years ago, will report to Roberts.
Roberts said in a written statement Thursday that HSBC’s focus is on empowering front-line teams and simplifying how the bank serves its customers.
“This is an exciting opportunity to establish HSBC as the world’s leading corporate and institutional bank — one that offers an unmatched combination of global reach, local expertise, and integrated solutions,” he said.
Also on Thursday, roughly three months into Elhedery’s tenure atop the company, HSBC announced the departure of its CEO for global private banking and wealth. Annabel Spring will leave on Dec. 31 to pursue other opportunities, HSBC said.
Elhedery, a longtime HSBC executive who served as group chief financial officer prior to becoming group CEO, has been focusing on cost cutting.
The changes under Elhedery’s leadership started in October, when HSBC announced not only new roles for certain executives but also what the company described as a simplified organizational structure.
Lisa McGeough, HSBC’s incoming U.S. CEO
HSBC
One result of that restructuring was the creation of the corporate and investment banking business, which integrated HSBC’s commercial banking business outside of the U.K. and Hong Kong with its global banking and markets business. Global trade and global payments are also part of the unit.
“HSBC’s management confirmed that the primary goal of the new structure was to better serve customers, and, secondarily, to save costs,” analysts at Morningstar DBRS wrote in an Oct. 30 note.
Since early 2022, when HSBC sold its U.S. retail operations in separate pieces to Citizens Financial Group and Cathay Bank, the company’s U.S. operations have been focusing on two major business lines: wealth management and corporate and institutional banking.
HSBC currently has roughly 6,000 U.S.-based employees, according to a source familiar with the matter.
McGeough, an American who has more than 30 years of experience in banking, has been with HSBC since 2021, having served from London as co-head of global banking coverage with responsibility for Europe. Her appointment as U.S. president and CEO is effective on Jan. 1.
HSBC said in a press release Thursday that McGeough will be “driving our next phase of growth as a super-connector between the U.S. and the rest of the world.”
McGeough previously worked at Wells Fargo, where she had most recently been the San Francisco bank’s head of international. While at Wells Fargo in 2020, she was named one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women to Watch.
