Escape Scotland for…Poland

HSBC’s banking operations in Scotland are expanding fast. In the past year it’s increased its number of ‘Premier’ personal banking accounts by 39% according to the Scotsman.  It’s also increased small business lending balances by 38%.

Despite – or possibly because – of this, John Rendall, the head of HSBC’s Scottish operations is being expatriated.

Rendall will be leading HSBC’s Polish operations, which we can only assume are in growth mode too. Meanwhile, Scotland is being taken over by Doug Baikie, an HSBC veteran who’s worked at the company for more than 10 years.

According to Joe Garner, head of HSBC in the UK, Scotland is still a growth company for the bank. Meanwhile, as we’ve pointed out before numerous banks are outsourcing back office operations to Poland, which has been identified by Morgan Stanley's head of emerging market equities Ruchir Sharma as one of the fastest growing economies of the moment.