HSBC chief to stand down in major shake-up

A major shake-up of HSBC's senior management is on the way with chief executive Michael Geoghegan set to quit by the year-end and finance director Douglas Flint to take over as chairman.Stuart Gulliver, the head of the bank's investment division, will become chief executive after a week of boardroom wrangling and manoeuvring sparked by the decision of current chairman Stephen Green to join the coalition government.The changes need to be ratified at a board meeting next week and may raise hackles within the UK government as they will see a second highly paid investment banker promoted to lead a major bank within a fortnight. Bob Diamond, the boss of Barclays' investment bank BarCap, was recently appointed as the bank's next chief executive.The battle for the top job at HSBC has been surprisingly messy with Geoghegan reportedly threatening to resign if he was not made chairman. Traditionally, the job of HSBC chairman has gone to the chief executive, but institutional shareholders wanted a change to this practice this time.John Thornton, a non-executive director and a former senior Goldman Sachs banker, was early favourite to take over as chairman and as an outsider would have been a popular appointment among shareholders.He also has strong links to the Far East and China in particular, but Geoghegan is reported to have objected to the prospect of his becoming chairman.Shareholders have expressed astonishment at the very public boardroom bust-up, but the shares reacted calmly this week to the possibility of Geoghegan's departure and the prospect of a team consisting of Gulliver and Flint should be well-received.The new boardroom set-up is also likely to include a role Sir Simon Robertson, the senior independent director who oversaw the process to find a new chairman. He could become deputy chairman according to reports this morning.