A brief scuffle on the bridge of the HSBC supertanker doesn’t mean a change of course

‘HSBC shareholders should remember that slavish adherence to corporate fashion is usually what gets banks into trouble,’ I wrote in May, in response to whispers that executive chairman
Stephen Green was under pressure to make way for a conventionally non-executive outsider.

‘HSBC shareholders should remember that slavish adherence to corporate fashion is usually what gets banks into trouble,’ I wrote in May, in response to whispers that executive chairman
Stephen Green was under pressure to make way for a conventionally non-executive outsider. The bank’s board certainly seems to have taken my message to heart, having persuaded its major
institutional investors to accept a reshuffle that offends against every nostrum of corporate correctness — which proves that having $2.4 trillion of assets and no bailout money means never
having to say you’re sorry.

The haste with which HSBC announced the appointments of Doug Flint as Green’s successor and Stuart Gulliver as chief executive added fuel to media talk of a boardroom bust-up.