Who is the 160-year-old Pam Kaur, the first female CFO of HSBC Holdings?

In a historic move, HSBC Holdings, the 160-year-old corporate and institutional banking giant, reportedly appointed insider Pam Kaur (60) as its new chief financial officer (CFO) on October 22 , the bank’s first female executive to hold the position.

Reuters reports that Kaul replaces Georges Elhedery, who vacated the position after taking over as CEO earlier this year.

“We had a strong internal and external candidate pool to choose from, and Pam was an outstanding candidate to recommend to the board,” Elhedery said in a company statement.

Who is Pam Call?

Kaur is an insider and was previously chief risk and compliance officer at HSBC. She joined the bank in April 2013 as head of the internal audit team. Kaul has been the front-runner for the job since September, according to Reuters and Bloomberg.

According to the HSBC website, she was appointed head of wholesale markets and credit risk in April 2019 and chair of the new enterprise-wide non-financial risk forum. In January 2020, she was appointed group chief risk officer and was responsible for compliance. June 2021. She is also Group Managing Director and a member of the Group Executive Committee.

According to her website profile, she is a qualified chartered accountant (CA) with Ernst & Young and began her career in Citibank’s internal audit department.

“She has extensive experience in building and managing large teams across different geographies and has held a number of senior roles in audit, business, compliance, finance and risk management at other global financial institutions. She has also worked with clients around the world of regulators and supervisory boards,” the introduction reads.

Ms. Kaur’s previous appointments include: Global Head of Group Audit, Deutsche Bank; Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Restructuring and Risk, Royal Bank of Scotland Group; Head of Compliance and Anti-Money Laundering, Lloyds TSB; Chief Compliance Officer, Citigroup International ; Global Compliance Director, Citigroup Global Consumer Group; and non-executive director of Centrica plc.

She serves as a non-executive director of abrdn plc. Ms. Kaur holds an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from Punjab University, India. She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

The future of HSBC

In addition to Kaul’s appointment, HSBC said that from January 1, 2025, the bank will streamline into four different business units – Hong Kong, UK, corporate and institutional banking and international wealth and senior Banking sector unit.

HSBC is consolidating its business banking business (excluding the UK and Hong Kong) and its global banking and markets businesses. The company said the new corporate and institutional banking unit will also incorporate key wholesale banking operations in Western market regions, including UK non-closed banks, Europe and the Americas.

“The new structure will result in a simpler, more dynamic and agile organization as we focus on executing on our strategic priorities that remain constant.”

HSBC has about 214,000 employees and has been cutting “duplicate roles” to reduce its presence in Western markets such as Canada, France and the United States and instead focus on Asia and its larger markets.

(Based on input from each agency)