Yahoo News HSBC To Appoint New Boardroom Pay Chief
HSBC is to seek a new chair for its boardroom pay committee as the incumbent prepares to step down after nearly a decade as a director.
Sky News has learnt that Sam Laidlaw, the former boss of Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) , is likely to leave the board of HSBC Holdings (HKSE: 0005.HK - news) during the course of 2017, nine years after his appointment.
The timing of Mr Laidlaw's exit is not yet fixed, and insiders pointed out that he continues to enjoy the overwhelming support of HSBC shareholders, having been re-elected with a 99.33% vote in favour of his re-election at last month's annual meeting.
The appointment of a new remuneration committee chair will make Mr Laidlaw's replacement the third person to hold the role in as many years.
Mr Laidlaw, who is now focused on building a new oil and gas venture called Neptune, took over in 2015 from Sir Simon Robertson, the former Rolls Royce (LSE: RR.L - news) chairman and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) banker, at the helm of the bank's executive pay policy.
The post of remuneration committee chairman has become one of the most complex boardroom positions in international banking since the financial crisis of 2008, with a series of reforms dictating an overhaul of the way executives are rewarded.
Significant proportions of bankers' pay are now subject to long-term deferral periods, with malus and clawback enabling employers to cancel elements of variable pay in an attempt to hold executives to account.
HSBC is among major banks to have disclosed that hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of bonuses have been withheld because of misconduct and other issues.
In addition to his responsibilities as chair of HSBC's remuneration committee, Mr Laidlaw is playing a key role in identifying a successor to Douglas Flint, HSBC's chairman, who signalled in the bank's annual report that he would retire next year.
Henri de Castries, the outgoing chairman of AXA (Paris: FR0000120628 - news) , the French insurer, recently joined HSBC's board as a non-executive director, and has been named as a likely contender to succeed Mr Flint.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is not clear, however, whether Mr de Castries wants the role, and the search process is expected to last for several months.
The ongoing boardroom changes at HSBC come as the bank continues an aggressive drive to become more efficient under Stuart Gulliver, its chief executive.
Despite frustration among executives and investors over its share price performance, Mr Gulliver is also heavily backed by shareholders, with more than 99.7% supporting his re-election at the AGM.
The bank announced a number of changes to its pay policy, including a move to cut the maximum sums that executive directors can earn, avoiding the revolts which have hit dozens of blue-chip companies during this AGM season.
HSBC declined to comment on Wednesday.
