HSBC’s Head of Corporates for Commercial Banking in H.K. Resigns

(Bloomberg) -- Wallace Lam, head of corporates, commercial banking Hong Kong at HSBC Holdings Plc, is leaving the lender, according to people familiar with the matter.

Lam resigned last week and is currently on gardening leave and will likely be joining a competing bank in Hong Kong, one of the people said. The people asked not to be named discussing an internal matter.

Europe’s largest lender is pivoting to Asia and said in February it would spend more than $6 billion over the next five years to expand its Asian operations, in particular its wealth management arm. It’s also fighting to retain staff after it cut variable pay by about 20% last year.

Lam was previously co-head of global banking for Hong Kong and was with the bank for more than 10 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was also head of high yield capital markets and commercial banking debt origination for Asia at HSBC. The London-based bank earlier this year appointed Frank Fang head of commercial banking for Hong Kong, succeeding Terence Chiu, who retired.

HSBC is trying to keep a lid on costs as part of its response to the pandemic. The bank has said it expects to reduce its workforce by about 35,000.

A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment.

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