HSBC: In search of acceptable

The ousting of John Flint as HSBC’s chief executive in August was always likely to presage a more intense focus on the performance of the firm’s global banking and markets division. 

And, so it has proved with the release of the bank’s third-quarter earnings, in which interim CEO Noel Quinn described the performance of parts of GBM as “unacceptable” and unlikely to improve without “decisive action”.

GBM has long been a thorny problem for the bank, not because it has performed universally badly – it hasn’t, and Asia continues to be a strong area for the firm.