His disappointment was comprehensible. Having reached the ultimate spherical of the appointment course of to switch Noel Quinn as CEO, HSBC’s wealth and private banking head was handed over for the position by the board in favour of the lender’s chief monetary officer, Elhedery. Now Matos is leaving Europe’s largest financial institution.
Those that have labored with the lads stated that whoever missed out on the job was unlikely to have stayed for much longer. One particular person aware of the state of affairs stated it was apparent to senior colleagues that the 2 didn’t get alongside and the loser would go away shortly thereafter.
With Matos’ departure, HSBC’s loss might quickly be some rival lender’s achieve as he probably turns into one of many world’s most eligible financial institution CEO candidates.
“He’s a pedigreed supervisor with robust worldwide expertise, who I’m positive could be a superb match at a serious wealth supervisor,” stated Joseph Dickerson, head of European banks analysis at Jefferies in London.
Throughout his 9 years on the London-listed financial institution, Matos quickly rose up the ranks to ultimately head wealth and personal banking, the biggest division that accounted for about 40% of group revenues. On his watch, the unit’s pretax revenue greater than tripled to $11.5 billion in 2023. The Portuguese native’s earlier stints included main retail companies at HSBC and Banco Santander SA.
However any profitable recruiter might have to attend till subsequent 12 months to get Matos on board for his subsequent job as a result of he’ll stay with HSBC in an advisory capability by 2024, adopted by gardening depart. Matos, 56, declined to remark for this story when contacted by cellphone, and didn’t reply to a separate textual content message searching for remark. HSBC declined to remark.
“I’ve determined that that is the correct time for me to embrace new alternatives,” Matos stated in a memo to employees, noting he plans to make use of “the experiences I’ve had, and the relationships I’ve constructed right here and can carry them as I transfer ahead.”
Extra Direct
Matos and Elhedery supply a research in contrasts. Their differing administration kinds have been seen to HSBC staff through the monthslong CEO search course of.
Whereas Elhedery was low key — the Lebanese-born banker doesn’t actually have a LinkedIn profile — Matos appeared at instances to be working a quasi-presidential marketing campaign for the job. In a single LinkedIn put up from Could, he was pictured at an organization occasion in India wearing black, bathed in purple mild towards a backdrop of flaming torches.
They’re distinct of their private method as nicely. Elhedery is seen as collegial and collaborative, whereas Matos has a popularity of being extra direct, folks aware of each stated, asking to not be recognized discussing the executives and inner issues.
Even again in 2021, Matos was trying to make a robust pitch for the CEO job. That 12 months, he uprooted his household and moved to Hong Kong as HSBC shifted a lot of the financial institution’s senior administration to its most vital market. Having relocated to the previous British colony, he shortly started to embrace and adapt to life within the vibrant, southern Chinese language metropolis.
The previous years additionally noticed Matos on the coronary heart of the financial institution’s technique to proceed its pivot towards Asia, together with engaged on a number of of the corporate’s bolt-on acquisitions of wealth and insurance coverage companies within the area. Throughout his tenure, the financial institution purchased wealth operations in India and Singapore, and lately accomplished the takeover of Citigroup Inc.’s retail wealth portfolio in China.
Such strikes imply Matos is likely one of the few executives up for grabs with the pedigree of working at a big, systemically-important financial institution within the fast-growing Asia area, making him nicely suited to tackle a job at similarly-focused rivals together with Normal Chartered Plc. A raft of different international banks – from UBS Group AG to Citigroup – have additionally lengthy espoused plans to beef up their wealth enterprise in Asia.
Matos additionally spearheaded a drive to take the battle to fintech rivals within the retail foreign-exchange market with the launch earlier this 12 months of Zing, an FX platform open to non-HSBC clients.
One consumer who handled Matos stated he was a jargon-averse straight shooter and had gained respect by constructing the financial institution’s wealth enterprise.
“He’d been given various airtime externally with the market and also you are inclined to solely give that to folks you belief,” stated Benjamin Toms, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “I wouldn’t be shocked if he turned up at one other European financial institution someplace.”
Extra tales like this can be found on bloomberg.com
#HSBC #exit #Matos #Europes #soughtafter #bankers