HSBC boss exits on a excessive as Hong Kong guess pays off, says ALEX BRUMMER

Noel Quinn’s stewardship of Britain’s biggest bank, HSBC, has been remark-ably brief.

Yet in four years at the top, he radically changed the shape of the lender and contentiously doubled down on its historic Hong Kong base, in spite of Beijing’s crackdown on political and economic freedoms in the territory.

As Quinn noted when presenting his last set of results as chief executive, the bank has prospered in the region for 158 years.

Global rival Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan has spent the last 16 years expanding a focused New York investment bank into a global giant, never missing the opportunity for an acquisition.

Asia focus: Noel Quinn opted to double down on HSBC’s historic Hong Kong base in spite of Beijing’s crackdown on political and economic freedoms in the territory

Quinn has narrowed his bank’s mandate by concentrating on Hong Kong, China and Britain. Disposals have been made in G7 markets including the US, Canada and France. 

Investors, including dissident Beijing-influenced shareholder Ping An, have been rewarded in the Quinn era with dividend and share buyback payouts valued at some £42billion.

The bonanza that HSBC and other banks have received from higher interest rates is starting to dissipate.

As market and official rates across the world have trended down, HSBC smartly is seeking to broaden its economic model, focusing on wealth management. 

In spite of an exodus of entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and other financial centres, HSBC continues to harvest new retail accounts in its backyard. Quinn has occupied himself with strategic moves. 

His successor, finance director Georges Elhedery, who takes over in September, can be expected to deliver on cost-cutting and more efficient deployment of HSBC’s whopping 200,000 staff. 

Chinese growth has softened, the real estate meltdown has been costly and the battle for the South China seas doesn’t get any easier.

Nevertheless, it is still Asia’s century.

Oil threat

Ever since the murderous Hamas attacks on October 7, the world has been alert to the prospect of the conflict in Gaza becoming a broader Middle-East war.

A pair of high-level Hamas and Hezbollah assassinations has brought that possibility closer. 

Russia’s war on Ukraine has made Western finance ministries and central banks acutely aware of how geo-politics can rebound on the global economy.

Unlike the crisis which followed the Yom Kippur war in 1973, the energy price shock that followed the cut-off of oil and gas from Russia has been short-lived. 

Round-tripping has seen Russian energy find its way into Western economies via India and China. 

US fracking has changed the dependence of the West on Russian and Middle-East supplies. And when the wind blows, renewable energy makes a difference.

Fears of a wider conflict sent the oil price higher in latest trading, with Brent crude prices up 2.8 per cent at a shade over $80-a- barrel.

Barring blockage of Middle-East supply routes – and the Houthis have been trying that for months – there doesn’t appear to be cause for panic.

Risk takers

Unlocking Britain’s trapped pensions and other savings was a goal of Jeremy Hunt’s Mansion House reforms and a change which the new government cannot dismiss as a deceit.

So the decision by Phoenix Group and Schroders to come together to deploy £2.5billion in riskier private companies, upending a risk-adverse culture, is a breakthrough. 

The pair are aiming to free up over £20billion over the next decade. About time.