HSBC to turn to ex-JP Morgan luminary to calm the waters in its investment banking arm

Greg Guyett, formerly of US investment bank JP Morgan, is to join banking giant HSBC PLC (LON:HSBA) as co-head of global banking, according to reports.

The appointment is subject to regulatory approval and has not been officially announced.

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Guyett will work alongside Robin Phillips, the other co-head of global banking.

Phillips was among those reportedly heavily criticised in a so-called “mutiny memo” sent by a group of disaffected HSBC employees (past and present) that was sent to HSBC’s chairman, Mark Tucker, and the chief executive officer, John Flint.

“We are entirely fed up and demoralised and have no confidence at all in the existing leadership,” the memo, which was entitled “Global Banking & Markets: Rewards for Persistent Failure”, reportedly said.

“The division’s leadership has, year-on-year, utterly failed to create a successful strategy,” the mutineers claimed.

“Unlike any other bank, there is no proper and effective route to provide upward feedback: hence this memo, which is whistle-blowing on incompetence,” it said.

Exclusive: HSBC turns to former JPMorgan banker Greg Guyett to restore peace to its investment bank weeks after mutinous memo from employees criticising leadership; Guyett will be appointed as co-head of global banking subject to regulatory approval. https://t.co/DoiiGzyxqZ

— Mark Kleinman (@MarkKleinmanSky) October 11, 2018

Guyett will replace former Goldman Sachs banker Matthew Westerman, who quit HSBC last year. Westerman joined HSBC in 2016 with a brief to turn the business around but apparently put a few noses out of joint.

Story by ProactiveInvestors