European banking giant HSBC witnessed a surge in its share price as markets commenced trading on Monday following the lender's announcement of its new º£½ÇÊÓƵ chief executive.
David Lindberg, who previously spearheaded retail banking operations at NatWest, will join the FTSE 100 heavyweight to assume control of its º£½ÇÊÓƵ banking division, as reported by .
Stock prices leapt nearly two per cent during early trading to 987.80p. This follows the bank's decline of over 2.5 per cent on Friday amid a sector-wide selloff as American market concerns permeated the City.
Lindberg takes over from departing chief Ian Stuart, who was revealed in March to be moving into the position of group customer and culture director – a freshly established role.
HSBC chief executive Georges Elhedery has characterised Stuart's new position as "vital to the long-term success of HSBC".
Elhedery additionally emphasised the º£½ÇÊÓƵ as "one of our two home markets" whilst welcoming Lindberg to the position.
"The º£½ÇÊÓƵ is core to our foundational strength as a group," he stated.
HSBC eyes growth beyond º£½ÇÊÓƵ
However, the recent appointment arrives as the bank's senior leadership focuses on Asia and the Middle East for future expansion opportunities and has gradually scaled back European activities.
Last month, Michael Roberts, HSBC's chief executive of corporate institutional banking, revealed the group had "underestimated" the "enormous amount of capital" in Asia and the Middle East.
"The interesting thing is the amount of money in the Middle East... You have a reordering of the world's capital flows," he told Bloomberg TV. HSBC has wielded the axe across European operations as part of Elhedery's ruthless cost-cutting drive in the pursuit of expansion.
The banking giant – which commands a market capitalisation approaching £170bn – trimmed its investment banking activities in Europe and the Americas whilst prioritising Asia and the Middle East, with employees across these regions facing redundancy.
More than ten per cent of the workforce in France were eliminated following HSBC's disposal of its French retail banking operations to CCF – a subsidiary of My Money group.
Analysts previously informed City AM that these moves represented a "continuation of the bank's strategic pivot to Asia which has been intensifying over the past decade".
