HSBC to relocate senior executive to Hong Kong amid pivot to Asia: sources

HSBC Holdings will relocate its group chief people and governance officer, Aileen Taylor, from London to Hong Kong later this year, as the lender doubles…

HSBC Holdings will relocate its group chief people and governance officer, Aileen Taylor, from London to Hong Kong later this year, as the lender doubles down on expanding its Hong Kong and Asia operations, according to sources at the bank.

A source told the South China Morning Post that an internal decision to relocate Taylor to Hong Kong had already been made, as part of a push to strengthen the presence of senior executives in Hong Kong – HSBC’s biggest market and its focus of investment.

After Taylor moves to Hong Kong, four of the bank’s 13 group operating committee members will be based in the city. HSBC’s co-CEOs for Asia and the Middle East, David Liao Yi-chien and Surendra Rosha, as well as Barry O’Byrne, CEO of international wealth and premier banking, are already located there.

The company’s CEO, Georges Elhedery, signalled Hong Kong’s importance to the group when he began his new job in September 2024 by spending several days in the city, visiting the HSBC building in Central, as well as local branches, key customers and the city’s financial regulators, company officials said.

The CEO can speak Mandarin Chinese and has frequently come to Hong Kong to work and meet mainland officials and regulators, attending the closing ceremony of the International Mathematical Olympiad in Shanghai last week.