New York: HSBC Holdings Plc has made insurance executive Mark Tucker the preferred candidate to be chairman, replacing Douglas Flint, according to two people familiar with the decision, as Europe’s largest bank takes the first step to overhaul its top management team.
Tucker, 59, chief executive officer of AIA Group Ltd. and former head of Prudential Plc, is in discussions with the bank. Flint, 61, is expected to step down after six years as executive chairman and 21 years at the bank. HSBC has said the new chairman will start a search for a successor to Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver.
HSBC, one of the world’s largest lenders with about 235,000 employees in about 70 countries, is restructuring to adapt to tougher regulations, a law requiring the separation of its retail operations from the investment bank in the UK and amid a legacy of failed compliance and misconduct. The bank remains under the watch of the US Justice Department after helping South American drug cartels launder money, and faces moderating economic growth in China and the prospect of a post-Brexit slowdown in the U.K., its two most important regions.
