The remaining candidates to chair HSBC Holdings have been requested to pitch to the board of Europe’s largest lender subsequent week because it seeks to finalise the appointment of a successor to Sir Mark Tucker.
An individual near the financial institution mentioned on Thursday that Mr Osborne and at the very least one different candidate, considered the previous McKinsey chief Kevin Sneader, have been anticipated to satisfy HSBC’s administrators, together with appearing chairman Brendan Nelson.
Nevertheless, Naguib Kheraj, the previous Barclays finance chief and ex-Commonplace Chartered deputy chairman, is alleged to have pulled out of the recruitment course of in current days, the HSBC insider added.
Though he has scant direct banking or plc boardroom expertise, he has counselled HSBC on key strategic initiatives since changing into a accomplice on the advisory agency Robey Warshaw – now a part of Evercore Companions – in 2021.
He was additionally reported to have intervened on HSBC’s behalf because it sought to keep away from prosecution within the US in 2012 on cash laundering fees.
Mr Osborne, who was chancellor from 2010 till 2016, has amassed a portfolio of different company directorships, whereas he additionally chairs the British Museum.
With a market capitalisation of just about £180bn, HSBC is the second-largest FTSE-100 firm after medicine big AstraZeneca.
The financial institution has been in search of a substitute for Sir Mark for almost a 12 months, however has run what exterior critics have described as a chaotic succession course of.
Sir Mark, who has returned to the helm of insurer AIA as its non-executive chairman, stepped down on the finish of September, however stays an adviser to the board.
HSBC’s shares have soared during the last 12 months, rising by greater than 40%, regardless of the headwinds posed by President Donald Trump’s sweeping international tariffs regime.
Its largest strategic transfer in 2025 has been to supply $14bn to purchase the remaining shares of Hong Kong’s Dangle Seng Financial institution.
When he was appointed, Sir Mark grew to become the primary outsider to take the submit within the financial institution’s 152-year historical past – and which has an enormous presence on the excessive road due to its acquisition of the Midland Financial institution in 1992.
He oversaw a fast change of management, appointing financial institution veteran John Flint to interchange Stuart Gulliver as chief govt.
The transition didn’t work out, nonetheless, with Mr Tucker deciding to sack Mr Flint after simply 18 months.
He was changed on an interim foundation by Noel Quinn in the summertime of 2018, with that change changing into everlasting in April 2020.
Mr Quinn spent an extra 4 years within the submit earlier than deciding to step down, and in July 2024 he was succeeded by Georges Elhedery, a long-serving govt in HSBC’s markets unit and extra not too long ago the financial institution’s chief monetary officer.
The brand new chief’s first large transfer within the high job was to unveil a sweeping reorganisation of HSBC that sees it reshaped into jap markets and western markets companies.
He additionally determined to merge its industrial and funding banking operations right into a single division.
The restructuring, which Mr Elhedery mentioned would “result in a simpler, more dynamic, and agile organisation” has drawn a combined response from analysts, though it has not interrupted a robust run for the inventory.
Throughout Sir Mark’s tenure, HSBC continued to exit non-core markets, promoting operations in nations equivalent to Canada and France because it sharpened its concentrate on its Asian operations.
In late September, HSBC mentioned in a press release: The method to pick out the everlasting HSBC Group Chair, led by Ann Godbehere, Senior Unbiased Director, is ongoing.
“The company will provide further updates on this succession process in due course.”
HSBC has been contacted for remark.
