HSBC to lose Asia expert as Chairman Mark Tucker announces retirement

By Lawrence White

LONDON (Reuters) -HSBC said on Thursday that Chairman Mark Tucker will retire by the end of this year, after nearly eight years in the role at Europe's biggest bank presiding over its dramatic shrinking and navigating of Sino-U.S. tensions.

Tucker, the bank's first ever externally-recruited Chairman, will remain as a strategic adviser to CEO Georges Elhedery, the bank said, adding that it had begun a search for his successor.

The 67-year-old Tucker's departure will not come as a major shock to investors, given he was nearing the end of the nine-year maximum advised for Chair roles under Britain's corporate governance code, but it leaves a hole at the top of the Asia-focused bank.

Former insurance executive Tucker presided over a period of sweeping restructuring at HSBC, during which the bank shrank its presence in Western markets such as the United States, Canada and France in favour of a pivot to Asia.

"The Board is conducting a thorough process to identify the best candidate to lead the Board, and support Group CEO, Georges Elhedery, and the wider management team, through the next period of development and growth for the Bank," Ann Godbehere, senior independent non-executive director, said in a company statement.

Under Tucker's stewardship, the bank has had to deal with a constant drumbeat of geopolitical tensions, as Britain together with the U.S. clashed with China, where the bank has its second home and major profit engine in the financial hub of Hong Kong.

HSBC's shares plunged during Tucker's stewardship as the bank battled through those challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic, but have recovered in the last year to be up around 17% overall since he took over in September 2017.

HSBC will likely begin the search for a successor on its present board, sources with knowledge of the bank's thinking told Reuters, with former Citigroup President Jamie Forese among the best-positioned candidates, the sources said.

Geopolitical tensions came to a head for HSBC in May 2023 when its then-biggest shareholder Ping An Insurance of China lobbied for the bank to spin off its Asian business, a proposal ultimately defeated at HSBC's annual shareholder meeting.

Tucker's experience in Asia, where he helmed insurance group AIA before joining HSBC as chairman, stood him in good stead as the bank sought to deepen its business in the region, culminating earlier this year in a role leading a British business delegation to Beijing.

HSBC, among major European lenders, this week retained ambitious performance targets after a bumper first-quarter profit, despite threats to their earnings from a possible global recession and shaky business confidence.

Asia- and trade-focused HSBC is potentially more exposed than some peers to the fallout from U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, as they threaten to disrupt global trade corridors and hurt China and Asia-based businesses that import or export.

(Reporting by Lawrence White in London, Aaditya Govind Rao and Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru. Editing by Susan Fenton and Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan)