The long-standing head of HSBC's Swiss-based private bank Franco Morra is leaving. The move follows a torrid period of scandals and clean-ups.
HSBC Private Bank head Franco Morra will leave at the end of next week, the British bank said in a statement on Monday. He had been CEO of the Geneva-based bank for the past six years, a period during which HSBC's wealth arm cleaned up following a data leak by data thief and whistleblower Herve Falciani as well as a dramatic withdrawal from dozens of markets and several booking centers.
His sudden exit coincides with HSBC grouping the Swiss bank together with five other private bank units in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa – namely the U.K., France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Channel Islands – effective immediately.
New Structure
The unit will be led by Chris Allen, currently head of HSBC's private bank in Britain. «In parallel with the regional structure change, Franco Morra has chosen this time to step down and leave HSBC, having accomplished his mandate of transforming the Swiss private bank,» HSBC said in a statement.
It is unclear whether Morra, who couldn't immediately be reached, had hoped to follow up the Swiss revamp with the top EMEA job that Allen has now clinched. HSBC said only that Allen, who is being sandwiched between the Swiss private bank and overall wealth head Peter Boyles, had been instrumental in the growth of several markets which form part of the new structure, including its banks in the U.K., France and Germany.
Job Cuts, Withdrawals
The new structure comes two months after John Flint took over as head of HSBC overall in February. Morra, who formerly co-ran UBS' private bank during the financial crisis, will be replaced temporarily by Christophe Guillemot, who is the Swiss bank's finance head. HSBC employs roughly 1,300 people in Zurich and Geneva.
Under Morra, HSBC slimmed from more than 150 markets to roughly 20, cut hundreds of jobs and also increasingly focused on the ultra-rich. One of the rare Swiss private bankers with C-suite experience at both a Swiss giant – UBS – as well as a major foreign bank, Morra is likely to be a hot commodity in the wealth management job market.
