HSBC's Hong Kong equities professionals are feeling forsaken

It's not easy running HSBC's comparatively diminutive equities trading business. The bank has stopped breaking out the revenues it earns there, and there have been suspicions - denied by the bank - that European equities sales and trading might be the next to go after equity capital markets and M&A were exited outside Asia and the Middle East. At one point, it seemed that the equities business might be run from Hong Kong. Now, though, there are complaints that at senior levels, HSBC's equities business is entirely dominated by men in London.

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Sources at the bank in Asia complain that the key global positions in equities are held by an array of men based in the City. 

Those men include: Franck Lacour, the global head of equities; Loic Lebrun, the global head of prime finance; Renaud Delloye, the global head of equity derivatives trading; Mohamed Yangui, the global head of equities structuring; Tristan Larrue, the global head of corporate equity derivatives trading; Ed Duggan, the global head of cash equities execution; and Joshua Renford-Fox, the global equities COO.

The situation is nothing new. HSBC's global equities business has always been run out of London. Excepting Yangui, who joined in 2024, many of the business heads have been employed by HSBC for years and have forever been based in Canary Wharf. Duggan, however, moved to London from Hong Kong in 2021 when he was promoted to the global role. 

In this context, the current cause for complaint seems to be that HSBC's Hong Kong equities professionals were hoping for greater prominence after the closure of the European banking business. "It seems odd that HSBC would keep all its equities division global heads in London, and none in Hong Kong, despite the fact that HSBC is shutting or reducing its equity capital markets operations in the UK, Europe and the US," says one insider.

HSBC didn't respond to multiple requests to comment on the topic. There are signs, however, that the Hong Kong business has been strengthened. Amyn Hussain, the bank's head of cash equity trading for Asia moved to Hong Kong from London (where he was head of cash equity trading for EMEA) in January.  Oliver Kadhim, the former head of sales trading for EMEA, moved to Hong Kong four years ago and became the co-head of Asia equity execution and then head of the Asia Institutional Client Group.

However, sources at the bank point to recent exits in the Hong Kong equities business which have undermined its heft and which they say have not been remedied. Reuters reported in February that Selene Chong, the bank's Hong Kong-based deputy global head of equities has taken a leave of absence; insiders say she's on sabbatical for a year. Thibaut de Rocquigny, HSBC's Hong Kong based global head of equity strategy, is understood to have quietly left last year. 

 "There is now not a single global equity head based in Asia," complains one HSBC insider. Hong Kong equities professionals want a "meritocratic organisational revamp," they add. - The lack of leadership in Hong is, "hurting morale and making it harder to retain talent." 

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