Last checked at 
* Banking and Markets units to be more firmly separated
-memo
* Top executives cut despite wider halt on redundancies
* CEO Quinn presses on with reshuffle ahead of April 28
results
* Investors sympathise with CEO's tough task
(Adds investor comment, more details)
By Lawrence White, Sumeet Chatterjee and Sinead Cruise
LONDON/HONG KONG, April 20 (Reuters) - HSBC has cut
a number of top management roles in its investment bank, memos
seen by Reuters showed, a sign that Chief Executive Noel Quinn
is pressing on with plans to shake up the group despite having
put a wider job cut programme on hold.
CEO Quinn last month announced a temporary halt to plans for
35,000 redundancies across the bank because of the impact of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Quinn, who took on the permanent CEO role in March after a
lengthy audition process during which Chairman Mark Tucker
courted several external candidates, faces a nightmarish task to
steer Europe's biggest bank through the crisis.
HSBC's twin homes of Britain and China have been
particularly hard hit by the pandemic, while cuts to central
bank interest rates worldwide will curb the bank's already
pressured profits and it faces a shareholder revolt in Hong Kong
over dividend halts.
The new strategy for the bank that Quinn announced in
February already needs overhauling, as the lender tries to adapt
to the crashing global economy.
"It’s hard to feel anything but sympathy for Noel who’s
doing okay in exceptionally tough circumstances,” said Hugh
Young, managing director at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, one
of HSBC’s 10 largest investors.
Quinn's management reshuffle includes cutting the regional
head roles of the Global Banking & Markets (GBM) business which
houses HSBC's investment banking activities, the memo seen by
Reuters on Monday, said.
As a result, Asia-Pacific head of GBM Gordon French will
take a six-month sabbatical from the bank, while the Americas
head Andre Brandao will stay on until the end of the year before
a further announcement is made.
In Europe, GBM head Thierry Roland will step down from that
role to take charge of a unit focused on asset disposals, as
HSBC seeks to shrink its balance sheet.
A spokesman for the bank confirmed the contents of the
memos.
WORST OF ALL WORLDS
Two other memos seen by Reuters and sent to bank staff in
recent weeks announced further changes.
GBM chief operating officer Andre Cronje will leave the bank
as part of the reorganisation, a separate memo seen by Reuters
said, and his role will not be replaced.
The bank is combining support functions for the Global
Banking and Commercial Banking businesses into a single "back
office" unit, the memo said.
A third memo spelled out the new regional heads of the
Global Banking business, with former China CEO David Liao taking
over Asia, Philippe Henry running Europe, Middle East and
Africa, and Andre Brandao looking after the Americas pending a
later decision, the memo said.
HSBC will be the first major British bank to reveal the
early impact of the crisis on its business, when it reports
earnings for the January-March period on April 28.
Early indications are that the bank will follow the lead of
U.S. peers that earlier this month reported a sharp rise in
provisions against bad loans, as lockdown measures worldwide
choke economic activity.
HSBC is, for example, among creditors to Singapore oil
trader Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd, which is struggling to repay
debts following a collapse in the oil price, Reuters reported on
April 16.
HSBC has declined to comment on the situation.
Investors said Quinn, who along with other HSBC bosses is
donating some of his salary to coronavirus-related charities,
faces a battle to implement his cost-cutting plans for the bank
amid public pressure to support workers at big companies.
"Not only is Quinn not going to be paid for this job, he’s
not actually going to be able to implement his strategy as he
intended," said Richard Buxton, head of UK equities at Merian
Global Investors.
"It’s the worst of all worlds in a way. You have declared
what you're going to do but you cannot execute it."
(Reporting By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise in London, and
Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong. Editing by Jane Merriman)
