HSBC Holdings PLC (LON:HSBA) has jointly promoted Georges Elhedery and Greg Guyett to co-heads of the global banking and markets division, as the banking giant axes the division’s long-standing boss amid severe job cuts.
Samir Assaf will step down after almost a decade as chief executive of global banking and markets on 1 March, moving to a non-executive role as chairman of corporate and institutional banking, the FTSE 100 company confirmed in a statement on Monday, following recent reports.
READ: HSBC misses profit expectations; pledges to swing the axe
Co-heads Guyett and Elhedery will lead the division together after previously heading up the banking business and the markets unit separately.
Group chief operating officer Andy Maguire is also on the way out, HSBC said, to be replaced by Hewlett Packard’s John Hinshaw.
Assaf’s departure fits into a rumoured plan to cut 10,000 jobs, focusing mainly on high-paid roles, as interim chief executive Noel Quinn wields the axe as part of wider efforts to revive the bank’s fortunes.
More than 4,000 redundancies were announced in August when former chief executive John Flint agreed to step down after just a year and a half in the role, saying that the bank needed new leadership to tackle the “challenging global environment”.
In October, the bank's global business was under fire after reporting revenue growth of only 1% compared with 8% and 12% for the retail and commercial banking divisions.
Quinn recently said that the third-quarter performance “was not acceptable” in the UK's non-ring-fenced bank, the US and Europe, so he was therefore “accelerating plans to remodel them, and move capital into higher growth and return opportunities".
The bank also added on Monday that Pam Kaur will be promoted to chief risk officer, replacing Mark Moses, who has been on the board since December 2010.